New Zealand v West Indies result: Black Caps fall to 13-run loss at Twenty20 World Cup
The Black Caps have been beaten by 13 runs by the West Indies in their T20 World Cup clash.
- The Black Caps won the toss and sent the West Indies into bat. The New Zealand side performed well for the most part with ball in hand to have the West Indies 112-9 with two overs remaining.
- However, a 37-run stand between Sherfane Rutherford and Gudakesh Motie saw them set the Black Caps a target of 150.
- The Black Caps started well, but lost wickets too regularly and sat 54-4 within the first 10 overs.
- They needed 33 from the final over and while Mitchell Santner had a good stab at it with a trio of sixes, the Black Caps fell short of their target.
- Rutherford was named man of the match for his 68-run knock.
Cameron McMillan
West Indies skipper Rovman Powell saying they would have bowled first as well.
Changes to Black Caps
Cameron McMillan
Southee in for Henry
Neesham in for Bracewell
Ravindra in for Chapman
Behind the changes Williamson not giving away much 'new venue, new team'.
Black Caps win toss, bowl first
Cameron McMillan
Black Caps need another 20 in the oven?
Cameron McMillan
Rovman Powell said. "They're a little bit undercooked. The pressure is really on them, because this game decides whether they go on: yes or no. Having said that, we're not focusing on New Zealand: we're focusing on what we have to do."
TAB odds
Cameron McMillan
West Indies $1.64
Black Caps $2.25
Top NZ runscorer
Devon Conway $3.60
Kane Williamson $4.20
Daryl Mitchell $5.25
Rachin Ravindra $5.40
Finn Allen $5.50
West Indies form guide
Cameron McMillan
The Windies are 2-0 at the World Cup after opening with a five wicket win over PNG before dealing to Uganda who were bowled out for 39 as West Indies recorded their largest T20 victory by 134 runs.
West Indies have a net run rate of 3.574. New Zealand's is -4.200.
They had a warm-up win over Australia and a 3-0 series win over South Africa in the lead-up. They have won their last six T20s.
Simple question...
Cameron McMillan
Weather report
Cameron McMillan
Looks like rain won't be a factor today in Trinidad.
Don't want to get too far ahead of ourselves but thunderstorms are predicted Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. The Black Caps play their final game there on Tuesday.
Pick the odd one out
Cameron McMillan
This via the New Zealand page on Cricinfo. Kind of feel like T20s would have suited the 'well-built brisk medium-pacer'.
Record in West Indies
Cameron McMillan
The Black Caps have played 11 T20s in West Indies - won 6, lost five. Against the West Indies at home they are 3-2, winning the most recent series in 2022.
The venue they are playing today Brian Lara Stadium in Tarouba is a new ground for the Black Caps.
It's hosted just four T20s since 2022. England made 267-3 in a 2023 win over West Indies.
India less than convincing against USA
Cameron McMillan
For a New York minute, it appeared the USA could pull off a second major upset at the World Cup when India were struggling to keep up with the run-a-ball ask in their chase today.
But Suryakumar Yadav came to the rescue along with five penalty runs because the USA failed to beat the shot-clock on three occasions (yes still talking cricket not NBA finals).
Win or go home (well actually stay for two more games)
Cameron McMillan
It's only their second game at the Twenty20 World Cup but already must-win time for the Black Caps after such a poor performance in their opening game against Afghanistan.
They must beat hosts West Indies today to keep their Super 8 hopes alive with two more games against Uganda and PNG to come.
Preview
After the Black Caps’ T20 World Cup opening capitulation against Afghanistan, with New Zealand looking off the pace in an 84-run defeat in Guyana, the team’s lack of warm-up matches ahead of the tournament has been questioned.
Kane Williamson’s side crumbled to their fourth-lowest T20 total, backing up a subpar effort with the ball and with an especially off-colour performance in the field. It seemed indicative of a side lacking international-level preparation.
In all three areas, the Kiwis were outclassed and coach Gary Stead said the logistics of players being overseas in the Indian Premier League (IPL) meant their scheduled warm-up matches couldn’t go ahead.
“Logistics made it very difficult. Our original warm-ups were down when our players weren’t in the country here [the West Indies] so that made it hard.”
He said New Zealand had appealed to tournament organisers to arrange later matches but that appeal was denied and that they knew they were running the risk of heading into the tournament without warm-ups.
“We tried to get later warm-up games but that was denied by the competition officials here, they deemed that it wasn’t possible.
“We have to run that risk, we knew that a couple of months ago. Ideally, yeah, it would have been great but it didn’t fit in to the players getting here in time.”
The tournament started on June 2 and the Black Caps first match was on June 8, meaning there could have been a small window for the New Zealand side to get a hit out while the tournament was underway. Afghanistan played two warm-ups before their opening encounter against Uganda, as well as a series against Ireland in March.
By contrast, the bulk of the Black Caps squad’s most recent T20s before the World Cup was against Australia in February as most missed the series against Pakistan in April, again due to the IPL.
The result saw a number of players take the field against Afghanistan with very little recent cricket play under their belt. Notably, that included Devon Conway, who hadn’t played any cricket since the end of February after suffering a broken thumb against Australia.
Despite an impressive showing at the ODI World Cup last year, batter Rachin Ravindra wasn’t named in the side to open the T20 edition and Stead said that was in part due to him getting matches “more at the start of the IPL”.
“Rachin played a number of games more at the start of the IPL, I think got a number of little cameos without really kicking on as well.”
Ravindra played 10 out of 14 round-robin matches in the 2024 IPL season, scoring 222 runs with a high score of 61.
In comparison, Glenn Phillips and Devon Conway did not take the field at all for their respective IPL sides in 2024, Lockie Ferguson played seven matches and Matt Henry four, yet were named in the lineup to face Afghanistan.
Stead said that despite the opening loss to Afghanistan, with the top four batters making just 22 runs between them, he would not be hitting the panic button on his batting lineup.
“I think it would be a mistake that if we, after one game, you throw everything that you’ve had out of the window as well. So I think for us, Rachin is no doubt, he’s a fine player. I think he could fit into a number of different positions in our order but to do that you have to leave people out as well, so it’s working out what you think is that right balance.”
The Black Caps coach said that while he sees Ravindra’s role at the top of the order it may be more likely that he is used in the middle of the innings.
“I think [his best role] it’s probably more at the top of the order and he then provides you with spin options as well, but part of our preparation with Rachin was understanding that that might not be the position that he ultimately he is in.”