West Indies continued their winning run in T20Is to beat New Zealand in the first of the five-match series today at Eden Park in Auckland. This is their fifth consecutive win in the format but it didn't come easy with Mitchell Santner almost taking the hosts over the line from a hapless position in the 165-run chase. Notably, this is also the first time that the West Indies defeated New Zealand in the shortest format away from home in the regulation 40 overs of action. The earlier win for them came in the Super Over, back in 2008 in Auckland.
As far as the match is concerned, Shai Hope led from the front with the bat for the visitors after they lost the toss and had to bat first. West Indies posted a fighting total of 164 runs in their 20 overs, with Hope scoring 53 runs while Rovman Powell provided the acceleration in the death overs with 33 runs off 23 balls.
For New Zealand, Jacob Duffy returned with figures of 2/19 in his four overs, while Zakary Foulkes' rise continued as he picked up a couple of wickets during his spell.
New Zealand stumble in chase
It is very difficult to beat New Zealand at home across formats but they stumbled in the run-chase today with the West Indies bowlers getting the better of the conditions on offer. Their bowlers put up a team work but it was Roston Chase's spell of 3/26 in four overs that tilted the game completely in the visitors' favour. Jayden Seales also shined with three wickets while Matthew Forde, Romario Shepherd and Akeal Hosein picked up a wicket each.
New Zealand collapsed to 107/9 from 70/2 in seven overs and it was only due to Santner's fighting cameo in the death overs that they even dreamt of winning the match. The captain fought valiantly only to fall short by seven runs in the end as the Kiwis could only 157 runs in their 20 overs.
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