Bridgetown (Barbados) | Shimron Hetmeyer held his nerve late in the run chase to make an unbeaten 69 and steer West Indies to a two-wicket win over New Zealand Tuesday in the fifth and final one-day cricket international.
New Zealand took the series 3-2, clinching it in Game 4 after winning Game 2 by five wickets and Game 3 by six wickets in a comeback following West Indies' seven-wicket victory in the opening game.
Hetmeyer's fifth ODI half-century and his partnership of 95 with Sherfane Rutherford (61) allowed the West Indies to reach 269-8 in reply to New Zealand's 268-9 with 15 balls remaining. All five matches in the series were won by the team batting second.
When Hetmeyer and Rutherford were together in a fifth-wicket partnership that built on the foundation set by Shai Hope (39) and Keacy Carty (20) - who put on 59 for the third wicket - West Indies looked like winning with ease.
Swinging momentum
But the match was a seesawing encounter. Rutherford was out when West Indies was 218-5, needing 41 to win with almost 10 overs remaining, and then Gudakesh Motie fell at 239-6.
When Jacob Duffy dismissed Matthew Forde and Alzarri Joseph with consecutive deliveries in the 45th over, and with 21 runs still needed for a West Indies win, the complexion of the match changed again.
New Zealand captain Mitchell Santner made the unusual decision to take left-arm spinner Jayden Lennox out of the attack after he had taken 3-35 from nine overs. Hetmeyer hit two sixes off Duffy in the 47th over and West Indies got home with more than two overs to spare.
Lennox took 14 wickets at an average of 13.6 and was voted player of the series.
"I wasn't really thinking about getting a half-century to be honest, I was just thinking about how ... I can make sure the team crosses the line," Hetmeyer said. "Every time a new batter came out I was just like make sure you're there at the end.' I'm just happy that I could be there to make sure we crossed the line." New Zealand appeared to be heading for a much bigger total when it was 181-3 in the 35th over and 230-5 with five overs to go. Will Young made 56, Tom Latham made 69 and Nick Kelly scored 64 to drive the innings. But the finish was missing against tight bowling, especially from Alzarri Joseph, who took 2-38 from his 10 overs.
Run chase starts quickly
West Indies' innings began at more than eight runs per over through the first five overs.
Then, in a double setback, it lost openers Ackeem Auguste and Justin Greaves in the space of five deliveries. Still, the home team was scoring at more seven runs per over after 10 overs as Hope and Carty kept up the pace.
New Zealand began to apply pressure through the spinners, Carty faced a series of dot balls and after reaching 118-2, both he and Hope fell inside three overs.
Hope fell to a poor ball from Lennox which he tried to hoist over the leg side field but pulled to Kristian Clarke coming off the fence at midwicket.
Keacy was frustrated to be pinned down and finally slashed across the line at a straight ball from Lennox which hit middle stump.
Rutherford stepped up first to revive the innings and found a like-minded partner in Hetmeyer, who was determined to be in at the finish. (AP)
