West Indies edge out NZ in tiebreaker

West Indies beat New Zealand in a super over decider after their first Twenty20 international had ended in a tie at Eden Park, Auckland on Friday.

After the visitors had finished on 155 for eight, tied with New Zealand’s 155 for seven, each team nominated three batsmen to face one over.

West Indies captain Chris Gayle smashed three sixes and a boundary off counterpart Daniel Vettori to help his side post 25-1.

Xavier Marshall had been run out off the second ball while attempting a second run to keep Gayle on strike.

Jacob Oram hit the first ball of Sulieman Benn’s over for six, scampered for two on the second but was caught in the deep off the next delivery.

Ross Taylor then hit a no ball for six to take New Zealand to 15-1 with three balls remaining, but was bowled on the next ball to give West Indies the victory.

Earlier, West Indies wasted a swashbuckling 67 off 41 balls from Gayle by losing four wickets for 21 runs off 19 balls towards the end of their innings. Gayle smashed five sixes and five boundaries in his innings and the visitors were coasting to victory at 109-2 in the 14th over before they suffered a spectacular collapse after some crafty bowling by Vettori.

The New Zealand captain took three for 16 off four overs, while offspinner Jeetan Patel finished with figures of 2-34, including the wicket of Gayle.

Marshall added 28 for the visitors, though the late collapse meant they needed eight off the final over to win the match.

Benn edged a four off the penultimate ball then scrambled for a single off the last ball of the match by Tim Southee to tie the scores.

Taylor smashed four boundaries and four sixes to anchor New Zealand’s innings with 63 and shared in productive partnerships with Scott Styris, Oram and Daniel Flynn.

Benn varied his pace and flight brilliantly to concede just 20 runs off his four overs, while Gayle captured 2-16 with his part-time off spinners.

The second and final match of the Twenty20 series is in Hamilton on Sunday. REUTERS

NEW ZEALAND
J. Ryder b Edwards 		12
B. McCullum c Benn b Baker 	14
R. Taylor b J. Taylor		63
S. Styris c & b Pollard		21
J. Oram  c Marshall b Benn	13
J. Franklin c & b Gayle 	 2
D. Flynn c Edwards b Gayle	10
K. Mills not out  		10
D. Vettori not out 		 2
EXTRAS (lb 1, w 6, nb 1)	 8
TOTAL (7 wickets) 		155

FALL OF WICKETS: 1-21 , 2-37 , 3-70 , 4-104 , 5-112,  6-142,  7-149 
BOWLING: Baker 4-0-32-1 (1nb, 1w), Taylor 4-0-33-1, (4w), Edwards 3-0-28-1, 
Benn 4-0-20-1, Pollard 2-0-25-1, Gayle 3-0-16-2
WEST INDIES
C. Gayle c Taylor b Patel		67
S. Chanderpaul c & b Mills		 6
X. Marshall b Vettori 			28
R. Sarwan c Flynn b Vettori 		 4
S. Findlay C McCullum b Southee 	19
K. Pollard c Patel b Vettori 		 7
C. Baugh  c McCullum b Patel 		 2
J. Taylor not out 			11
 F. Edwards run out (McCullum) 		 1
S. Benn not out 			 5
EXTRAS (lb 4, w 1) 			 5
TOTAL (8 wickets)			155
FALL OF WICKETS: 1-19, 2-82 , 3-109, 4-114, 5-124, 6-130, 7-149, 8-150
BOWLING: Mills 4-0-27-1, Southee 4-0-39-1, Oram 4-0-35-0, Patel 4-0-34-2, Vettori 4-0-16-3 (1w)