New Zealand beats West Indies in a 1-wicket thriller to clinch ODI cricket series

Santner, the New Zealand captain, 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-leveling victory to pay tribute to cricket great 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.”

Tribute to Sobers

West Indies had expressed a fervent hope to honor Sobers in his home town of Bridgetown and at Kensington Oval, the stadium where he nurtured his career and made his name. Sobers died Friday aged 89; both teams wore black armbands and flags flew at half staff in his memory.

Two seats were left empty in the pavilion named for Sobers and a minute of silence was observed before play began.

Sobers is considered the greatest West Indies cricketer and likely the greatest allrounder in the history of the game with more than 8,000 test runs and 200 wickets.

West Indies' hopes of honoring him had an early setback when New Zealand won the toss and chose to bowl. Teams bowling first have won all four matches in the series to date.

New Zealand won Game 2 by five wickets and Game 3 by six wickets after losing the first by seven wickets.

Difficult conditions

Conditions were difficult and West Indies slipped to 58-3 and 81-6 before the innings was revived by a seventh-wicket partnership of 81 between Amir Jangoo and Gudakesh Motie.

Jangoo scored 51, his half century from 71 balls, as West Indies ground toward a modest total. Motie made 41.

Young pacer Matthew Fisher took 3-40, his first ODI wickets for New Zealand. His first was West Indies captain Shai Hope (2), who fell to the best ball of the day, a cross-seamer which jagged back sharply from outside off.

Despite a bad start to its chase — losing two wickets with only six runs on the board — New Zealand was heading toward 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.

Tense finish

Spinner Motie and pacer Alzarri Joseph epitomized 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 (8), Jacob Duffy (1) and Fisher (1) 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 Bridgetown on Tuesday.

AP cricket: https://apnews.com/hub/cricket