Bridgetown, July 21:
Mark Chapman scored 80 and Mitchell Santner shepherded the tail to guide New Zealand to a tense one-wicket win over West Indies in the fourth one-day cricket international Sunday and to an unassailable 3-1 lead in the five-match series.
Santner was dropped with three runs needed and one wicket in hand, and last batter Jayden Lennox survived reviews for caught behind and lbw, before New Zealand edged past West Indies’ modest total of 188 with 35 balls remaining.
Santner, the New Zealand captain, hit the winning runs from the first ball of the 45th over to finish 34 not out and to spoil West Indies’ hopes of achieving a series-leveling victory to pay tribute to cricket great Garry Sobers.
“It was pretty chaotic, especially the ending,” Santner said. “You try to chip off the total as much as you can. Even partnerships of 10 or 15 at that stage was going a long way.
“It probably shouldn’t have got that close but it was nice to get over the line.”
West Indies had expressed a fervent hope to honor Sobers in his home town of Bridgetown and at Kensington Oval, the stadium where he nurtured his career and made his name. Sobers died Friday aged 89; both teams wore black armbands and flags flew at half staff in his memory.
Two seats were left empty in the pavilion named for Sobers and a minute of silence was observed before play began.
Sobers is considered the greatest West Indies cricketer and likely the greatest allrounder in the history of the game with more than 8,000 test runs and 200 wickets.