New Zealand swept the West Indies 3-0 in the ODI series in Hamilton on Saturday. After two closely fought matches, the Windies could muster just 162 runs in the finale and even though the Black Caps stuttered a bit, Mark Chapman kept their innings in control.
New Zealand found themselves in a bit of a fix during the run chase, but the two left-handers Mark Chapman and Michael Bracewell ensured that the Kiwis were on track to get the job done, which they eventually did as the hosts finished off the ODI series 3-0, winning the final game by four wickets. Matthew Forde and Jayden Seales were impressive as they have been through the series, getting the early wickets and didn’t let the New Zealand batters settle early on, but with only 162 runs on the board, the West Indies were asking too much out of their bowlers.
Hence, the match was set up by the bowlers for New Zealand in the first innings, as Matt Henry continued his sensational form with the ball across formats throughout the year. Henry was spot on early on, dismissing Ackeem Auguste and Keacy Carty in the same over, from where Kyle Jamieson and Zak Foulkes took it forward.
Roston Chase fought back a bit, getting those couple of quick boundaries, but couldn’t kick on beyond 38. There was some pushback even late in the innings by Khary Pierre, but it was more of the West Indies bowlers trying to push the score as far as they could for them to bowl at. But Henry and Co. were just too good as the West Indies, who did put up some decent scores in the first two games, just surrendered in the finale.
While Henry was the headline act with a four-fer, Mitchell Santner and Jacob Duffy also shared a couple of wickets apiece to dent the Windies even more. If the West Indies had a score around 220-230, it could have been a dogfight, but it wasn’t to be.
New Zealand were three down in the 11th over with not many runs on the board and needed someone to just stand there. In Daryl Mitchell’s absence, it was Mark Chapman who stood firm and negotiated the tough period, alongside Tom Latham. Once Bracewell joined him, it was just fireworks as the West Indies lost the plot and the duo just kept smashing and brought the chase under control.
Chapman was dismissed for 64 by Seales but Bracewell remained unbeaten on 40 off just 31 to seal the deal as New Zealand stretched their home ODI series win record to 13 in a row. The last time New Zealand lost a home ODI series was back in February-March 2018 when England beat them 3-2 in a five-match series. With T20Is and ODIs done, the focus will shift to Tests for teams.