CASTRIES - New Zealand once again rued missed chances and the lack of a killer punch as the West Indies christened St Lucia's new stadium in style yesterday.
The tourists posted a competitive 248 for seven batting first. Then an unbeaten 108 from transplanted opener Shivnarine Chanderpaul got the West Indies home by six wickets with five balls to spare in the second one-day international.
New Zealand's total was thanks largely to a slick 89 from captain Stephen Fleming and a hard-hit 85 off 81 balls from allrounder Scott Styris, but they were 20 runs short of an imposing score.
Chanderpaul was given a crucial let-off before he had scored when wicketkeeper Chris Nevin spilled a legside catch off Shane Bond which he got both gloves to.
And at 29 he survived a difficult one-handed return catch from Paul Hitchcock. He then made New Zealand pay for their blunders.
The bowlers, who were denied a run in the washed-out first game in Kingston, were tidy enough. The impressive Hitchcock bagged three for 43 off 10, Daryl Tuffey bowled tightly and Chris Harris and Daniel Vettori applied the brakes in the middle stages.
Fleming lamented that the game could have gone their way but ended in their seventh straight loss before a noisy crowd of 10,000 at the impressive Beausejour Cricket Ground.
"It's dogging us a little. We're getting close but not getting across the line," Fleming said.
"It was the first run-out for the bowlers and it was generally pretty good, we just let the sequence go at crucial times.
"Unfortunately, the catching seems to hound us a bit as well. We dropped Inzamam-ul-Haq and he went on to a big score [329 in last month's first test against Pakistan]. We've got to make those count; they can turn a game."
The West Indies were always in control as Chanderpaul added 55 with Chris Gayle, 86 with Ramnaresh Sarwan and 84 with captain Carl Hooper.
Hitchcock returned to knock over Sarwan and Hooper with superb yorkers.
It was the diminutive Chanderpaul's third one-day international century. The Guyanan battled cramp late in the innings to help Brian Lara finish the job. He faced 139 balls and hit eight fours and a six.
"He was only asked a couple of days ago to open the innings and he grabbed it. He's been batting beautifully all year," Hooper said.
"It's not often we chase 249 batting second and get it, and the manner we got them was pleasing."
A concern for New Zealand was speedster Shane Bond, who reached 148km/h on the television speed radar, but was largely off target. It was his first international for three months and it showed more work was needed as he overstepped three times and went for 59 off nine overs.
Fleming said Bond would bounce back. "He's a guy who will be spurred on by a performance like that."
New Zealand's innings, after Fleming won the toss on a flat pitch in sunny weather, again had some of the jittery moments from last week's knock of 176.
Fleming coolly anchored things with 89 off 116 balls as New Zealand crumbled to 55 for four. Styris then helped him to add 90 for the sixth wicket as they recovered from 113 for five.
Styris hit the ball sweetly from the start and passed his previous highest score of 48 against Zimbabwe with ease. He hit seven fours and three sixes, two of them huge strikes off paceman Mervyn Dillon.
Nathan Astle missed out again to a straight ball and Craig McMillan and Chris Harris fell in the space of three Pedro Collins deliveries.
- NZPA
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