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

The Windies played out a lot of dot balls and you can’t really afford to do that. Singles and doubles are what help you keep moving ahead and there wasn’t much emphasis put on that aspect in the first powerplay as well as the middle overs. Small things like these matter a lot and today itself was a prime example of that. The Kiwis continue to rule the roost at home in this format. The Windies will need to seize the key moments going forward if they are to bounce back in this series. We hope you enjoyed our coverage. Until next time, goodbye and cheers!

Mitch Santner: Making a habit of it, aren't we? Yeah, no, I think at the turn, I guess, we were reasonably happy with the way we got to the score. I thought the bowlers were outstanding again. Didn't get the wickets up front, but I thought we squeezed a lot through the middle. And made it tough for them at the end. And we know how much power they have at the end, and they showed that again. Yeah, he's (Mitchell) a man for a crisis, isn't he? Yeah, he played extremely well, obviously, on one leg at the end. To still get over the boundary, or at the end, to get us up to a good score with Zachy(Foulkes) there. Some great partnerships throughout that innings. Yeah, I thought we did pretty well to get to that score, and we were reasonably happy at the turn. Yeah, I think we were smart. Like Shai said, obviously, the wind made our plans pretty simple, which is try and hit to the big side. Yeah, it made them take tough options. I think it was still a pretty good wicket. The odd one played a little bit of a trick, but I think we did pretty well to close it out, to be fair.  I just think, obviously, the dimensions of the ground. I mean, you get to Napier, and it's probably a 50-metre square boundary. You're probably not going to bounce too many people out. But, yeah, I think, obviously, with the wind as well, and trying to use the surface, because it was a little bit up and down, so I think that was our thinking, anyway. 

Shai Hope: Yeah, you said it was a tight one, but we keep putting ourselves in positions to win. So I must take the positive from that. But for being very, very critical, the batters need to step up a bit more, especially at the top. Myself included, I got out at a very crucial time there. A few of us, we need to go a bit bigger. But still, credit must be given to the bowlers for the fight they showed. Yeah, well, I messed that one up a bit. But, yeah, he (Chase) was very, very, very economical today. Didn't get as much spin as he would like, you know, in normal conditions. But he played his part today. He made it a lot easier for us in the back end to defend that score we were looking at. But credit must be given to him and all the other bowlers for chipping in. Yeah, we just need to find ways to score. They certainly used that big boundary. I've never seen a boundary that big in New Zealand before. It's just something to look at. Hopefully the next condition that we play in might be a little bit more even. But, yeah, we just need to look at the ways we can negate those short balls. You see, it's a clear plan. It's something that we need to look at in the next couple of days.

Daryl Mitchell | Player of the Match: Yeah, it's always nice, I guess, to get one at Hagley and to help the team win a game of cricket. Yeah, special ground for me and nice to do it in front of the family. Yeah, look, it's nice, I guess, to do it here at home. Again, it's a lot of hard work, I guess, that goes behind doing that, to try and get us in a position to win games. So, yeah, it's a special opportunity. It looked like a tough wicket to get started on. Yeah, it was a tricky surface in terms of, I guess, the extra bounce that I've all had. I guess it wasn't a fluent sort of way you could go about your one-day innings. You kind of had to find ways to put pressure on them at times and absorb pressure at other times. So, yeah, keep trying to build partnerships and nice to get us to that 270 mark. Yeah, a little bit of a niggle. So, I guess we'll wake up tomorrow and see how that feels and come up with a plan from there. But, yeah, I guess, yeah, when you're in that mode, you're just trying to get as many runs as you can at the end and then give us a score. So, yeah, I was wandering around in the changing room for a bit by myself, just watching the TV. But, yeah, good to see the boys get the job done with the ball. I thought they were exceptional, especially through that start of middle period, building pressure. And, yeah, the way I guess they finished it off was cool.

The over-rate was something also that both teams would want to look at. They were appalling in that aspect.

22:31 Local Time, 09:31 GMT, 15:01 IST: NZ take a 1-0 lead. They dropped so many catches but have gotten away with this. Windies came very close but started too slowly and that I guess has come back to haunt them. Rutherford, Shepherd and Justin Greaves had too much to do in the end as the NZ bowlers used the short balls very judiciously. The short balls into the deck were tough to put away and that aided the hosts. Earlier, a hundred from Mitchell helped NZ to get to 269. The pitch had something in it for the pacers and that's why even 269 looked defendable. But the dropped catches were astounding. Plenty of catches went down in both the innings. And both teams would want to look back at it and may be come up with a quick fix.