West Indies Win The Final One-dayer To Take The Series 4-1

A heroic captain's innings by Ross Taylor notwithstanding, the West Indies pulled off yet another victory on a beleaguered New Zealand side. The victory gave the hosts a 4-1 series win. This is the West Indies' first ODI series win over a test playing nation other than Zimbabwe or Bangladesh since April 2008 and comes as a shot in the arm since the disappointing show in England.

Opting to bat first, West Indies kept losing wickets at the top of the order. And the shift in momentum that Kane Williamson had spoken about after the Kiwi victory in the fourth ODI seemed to be materialising. However, Samuels and Pollard rectified issues in the middle of the order, while the recalled Devon Thomas, Andre Russell and captain Sammy provided the finishing touches at the end to take the score to a challenging 264. Jacob Oram snared three wickets for 42 runs in his spell, while Pollard was he only batsman to cross the half century mark.

In reply, Guptill and McCullum departed early. Rob Nicol who spoke about his desire to bat for long wasted yet another start after scoring a quick fire 35. Batsman came and went but the captain Taylor kept holding fort. While the rest of the batsman struggled to get the ball off the square, Taylor returning after an elbow injury kept playing his typical hockey sweeps to the leg side. The pace of Tino Best and the menacing guile of Sunil Narine was far too much for the Kiwi batting line up as they folded 20 runs short of the target. Sunil Narine after overcoming the minor blip in English conditions got back into his miserly wicket taking ways during the series, as was deservingly adjudged Man of the Series.