New Zealand vs West Indies, 1st T20I - Live Cricket Score, Commentary

That's it from this game. We will have the 2nd one at the same venue tomorrow. Do join us then. For now it's bye bye from all of us here.

Shai Hope | West Indies captain: Communication is key, especially in those crucial moments. Everyone was clear about their roles and executed well. Credit to the bowlers - they stuck to the plan and delivered under pressure. (on their total) Definitely. We were a few runs short, but seeing how the surface played for both sides, it evened out in the end. Personally, I probably went a bit too hard - expecting a 200-plus total - but that’s on me. We’ll reassess and look to be more clinical next time. Big thanks to the crowd and happy birthday again to Jason from all of us. We’ll rest up and go again tomorrow.

Mitch Santner | New Zealand captain: I think the way we lost our way in the middle overs, they really put the pressure on us. I guess we weren't able to go anywhere, but I think we were reasonably happy with 160 at the turn, but yeah, one of those nights I guess. You come out against a good side and they bowled what they needed to on that wicket, into the wicket with the change of pace. But I think the good stuff with the ball at the start was outstanding. All four of the seamers did a great job on that wicket. So to restrict them to 160, we were pretty happy with that at the turn. And then I think the way we started with the bat, powerplay was good. It was just those middle overs I guess really slowed us down a little bit. (plans for tomorrow) I think so. I mean, we're going to be confronted with very similar stuff tomorrow on a very similar wicket. So yeah, I think we'll take the learnings from this game. But again, you've got to move on pretty quickly. You don't want to, I guess, dwell on too much before tomorrow. But I think we'll have a little talk about it now and see if there's anything we can potentially improve on. And then we'll go again tomorrow in another game.

Roston Chase | Player of the Match: It was coming off good tonight. I was getting a bit of spin and a bit of bounce, so I just tried to use that to my well-being. We learned from what the New Zealand bowlers did, it was very difficult. They hit the wicket hard and took pace off as well, so we just tried to emulate that and it worked out for us. It gives us a lot of confidence to start the series well with a win, and tonight something that we really spoke about is also to celebrate Jason Holder's birthday. We wanted to give him a birthday gift, so the guys really went out there and fought hard and we won.

Stats by Roshan Gede

WI under Shai Hope in T20Is
First 10 matches: One win, nine defeats
Next 5 matches: Four wins, one defeat

- Jimmy Neesham today became the first NZ player to complete the double of 1000 runs and 50 wickets in T20Is.

- The unbeaten 50-run stand between Santner and Jacob Duffy is just the fourth 50-plus 10th wicket partnership in Men’s T20Is, and the first in a match involving full-member teams, the previous best being 44* between Barry McCarthy and Joshua Little (IRE) vs SA, Dublin (Malahide), 2021.

- Santner is the second captain to register a 50-plus score from No.8 or lower in all Men’s T20Is, after Lansana Lamin’s 52* for Sierra Leone vs Eswatini (Abuja, 2024).

Highest scores from No.8 or lower in T20Is (FM teams)
84* - Isuru Udana (SL) vs SA, Centurion, 2019
60 - Iftikhar Ahmed (PAK) vs NZ, Lahore, 2023
55* - Mitchell Santner (NZ) vs WI, Auckland, 2025
53 - Rishad Hossain (BAN) vs SL, Sylhet, 2024
52 - Rishad Hossain (BAN) vs ZIM, Mirpur, 2019

- 164/6 is the lowest score defended in T20Is at Eden Park; SA had defended 165/7 against the hosts here in 2012 (excluding rain-shortened games).

NZ vs WI in T20Is in New Zealand
Matches: 12
Won by NZ: 8
Won by WI: 2
NR: 2
This is the first outright win for WI in T20Is in New Zealand. They’d won in a Super Over finish at this venue in 2008 previously (NZ had won the Bowl Out in the first ever tied T20I, played between these two sides here in 2006).

22:52 Local Time, 09:52 GMT, 15:22 IST: What a near-heist from Santner and New Zealand. Had that wide been given in the final over, things might well have been different. Instead it's West Indies who win their first T20I game in New Zealand in regulation time. At the halfway stage, Powell felt they were 20-30 short but an excellent bowling and fielding performance sees them win. Wickets fell regularly after Robinson started in an attacking fashion. At 70/2 New Zealand were on track, but that middle-overs collapse cost them big. They slumped to 107/9 as Chase took some key wickets. He was helped by Seales and West Indies were on their way to a big win. But Santner had other ideas, he smashed Forde for 23 in one over and kept finding the boundaries to take it to the last over. But eventually he couldn't take his side to one of the great wins in T20Is. Stay tuned for the post-match stuff...

A chat between Shai Hope, Shepherd, Holder and King. Santner has a word with Jacob Duffy.

Now a chat between Holder and Shepherd.