BRIDGETOWN: Mark Chapman’s solid half-century and intelligent willow work by captain Mitchell Santner with tailenders under pressure steered New Zealand to a tense one-wicket win over West Indies in the fourth One-day International here at the Kensington Oval on Sunday.

The thrilling win gave the tourists an unassailable 3-1 lead in the five-match series.

Santner was dropped with three runs needed and one wicket in hand, and last man Jayden Lennox survived reviews for caught behind and lbw, before New Zealand edged past West Indies’ modest total of 188 with 35 balls remaining.

Santner hit the winning runs from the first ball of the 45th over to finish 34 not out and to spoil West Indies’ hopes of achieving a series-levelling victory to pay tribute to cricket great Sir Garry Sobers.

“It was pretty chaotic, especially the ending,” Santner said. “You try to chip off the total as much as you can. Even partnerships of 10 or 15 at that stage was going a long way.

“It probably shouldn’t have got that close but it was nice to get over the line.”

West Indies had expressed a fervent hope to honour Sobers in his home town of Bridgetown and at the Kensington Oval, the venue where he nurtured his career and made his name. Sobers died Friday aged 89; both teams wore black armbands in his memory. Two seats were left empty in the pavilion named for Sobers and a minute of silence was observed before play began.

New Zealand won the toss and chose to bowl. Teams bowling first have won all four matches in the series to date.

The tourists had won the second match of the series by five wickets and the third ODI by six wickets after losing the first by seven wickets.

West Indies slipped to 58-3 and 81-6 before the innings was revived by a seventh-wicket partnership of 81 between Amir Jangoo (51) and Gudakesh Motie (41) as they slowly moved towards a modest total.

Pacer Matthew Fisher took 3-40, his first ODI wickets for New Zealand. His first was West Indies captain Shai Hope (two), who fell to the best ball of the day, a cross-seamer which jagged back sharply from outside off.

Despite a bad start to their chase — losing two wickets with only six runs on the board — New Zealand were heading towards a comfortable win after Chapman and Michael Bracewell put on 65 for the fifth wicket. Chapman’s dismissal left New Zealand at 142-5, needing only 47 runs to win with almost 25 overs in hand.

Spinner Motie and pacer Alzarri Joseph epitomised West Indies’ intent, bowling their team to the brink of victory. Motie took 5-47 and Joseph 1-23, putting heavy pressure on New Zealand through the closing overs.

Bracewell (32) was out to Motie’s first ball after a short rain break, then Nathan Smith, Jacob Duffy and Fisher were all dismissed quickly.

New Zealand needed eight runs when Lennox went in at No. 11. Santner took New Zealand within one run of victory but left Lennox to face a full over from Vitel Lawes which yielded two confident appeals, both rejected under review.

Lennox survived and Santner finished the match from the first ball of the next over.

“It’s been a really good cricket game for the onlookers,” Hope said. “If you watch a game like this as a neutral you’re going to be really happy to see play like this.

“It was one that could have gone to either side. I must commend our guys for the fight they showed.”

The last match of the series will be played at the same venue on Tuesday.

Scoreboard

WEST INDIES:

A. Auguste lbw b Santner 33

J. Greaves c&b Smith 10

K. Carty c Latham b Santner 13

S. Hope b Fisher 2

A. Jangoo c Nicholls b Fisher 51

S. Rutherford c Santner b Bracewell 6

M. Forde run out 7

G. Motie c Latham b Fisher 41

A. Joseph not out 9

J. Seales lbw b Lennox 7

V. Lawes c Chapman b Bracewell 1

EXTRAS (B-2, LB-1, W-5) 8

TOTAL (all out, 44.4 overs) 188

FALL OF WICKETS: 1-12 (Greaves), 2-54 (Carty), 3-58 (Hope), 4-62 (Auguste), 5-71 (Rutherford), 6-81 (Forde), 7-162 (Motie), 8-171 (Jangoo), 9-185 (Seales)

BOWLING: Duffy 6-1-16-0, Smith 5-0-28-1, Santner 10-1-36-2, Fisher 8-0-40-3 (4w), Bracewell 8.4-1-35-2, Lennox 7-0-30-1 (1w)

NEW ZEALAND:

H. Nicholls c Hope b Forde 0

W. Young c Hope b Seales 20

N. Kelly c&b Forde 3

M. Chapman c Rutherford b Motie 80

T. Latham c Greaves b Motie 5

M. Bracewell b Motie 32

M. Santner not out 34

N. Smith b Joseph 8

J. Duffy b Motie 1

M. Fisher b Motie 1

J. Lennox not out 0

EXTRAS (LB-1, W-4) 5

TOTAL (for nine wickets, 44.1 overs) 189

FALL OF WICKETS: 1-0 (Nicholls), 2-6 (Kelly), 3-46 (Young), 4-77 (Latham), 5-142 (Chapman), 6-149 (Bracewell), 7-166 (Smith), 8-167 (Duffy), 9-180 (Fisher)

BOWLING: Forde 9-1-44-2 (1w), Seales 9.1-2-42-1 (2w), Lawes 6-1-32-0, Joseph 10-1-23-1 (1w), Motie 10-0-47-5

RESULT: New Zealand won by one wicket.

MAN OF THE MATCH: Mitchell Santner

SERIES: New Zealand lead five-match series 3-1.

Published in Dawn, July 21st, 2026