HAMILTON – New Zealand beat West Indies by eight wickets in the third and final Test in Hamilton yesterday, to claim the three-match series 2-0.
The win was also the hosts’ first since 2006 against the same opponents.
Resuming on the fourth day at six without loss, New Zealand cruised to their target of 122 with eight wickets in hand.
Despite the loss of Peter Fulton (10) during the morning session and Kane Williamson (56) on the verge of victory, the home team crawled to an historic series win.
Hamish Rutherford, who shared in an 83-run second-wicket partnership with Williamson, finished the match unbeaten on 48, hitting a boundary to confirm the result, alongside Man of the Match Ross Taylor.
Darren Sammy and Veerasammy Permaul took the two wickets to fall in New Zealand’s second innings.
The win at the Basin Reserve was New Zealand’s first in 11 Tests under the captaincy of Brendon McCullum and their series victory was their first in eight years over any nation other than Bangladesh.
“I thought it was an outstanding Test match and it’s been an outstanding series,” McCullum said.
“We were led with the bat by Ross Taylor and he showed why he’s a world class player.
“He’ll go down as one of our greats and he’s been backed up by our bowling group which has been outstanding in this series. I think some of the fast bowling we’ve seen, from Trent Boult and Tim Southee in particular, has been outstanding this summer.
“We’ve had a pretty tough time of late. I think we’ve played some good cricket at home and haven’t always got the results. But I think we’ve been putting in some pretty consistent performances at home and to put some results on that is obviously very nice.”
West Indies posted a competitive first innings knock of 367 following centuries from Shivnarine Chanderpaul (122*) and Denesh Ramdin (107) and then Sunil Narine’s spell of six wickets for 91 runs restricted New Zealand to 349 to give the visitors the advantage despite another century from Taylor (131).
But a second innings batting collapse by the West Indies threw the match in New Zealand’s favour and set up an easy victory target.
“I think once again we have had to learn a lesson at Test cricket,” West Indies captain Darren Sammy said after the defeat.
“They played really well and batted and bowled better than us. We lost the series but there is a lot to learn, but we didn’t show the required mental steel and toughness.
“Bravo’s (Darren) double-hundred, Chanderpaul and Ramdin’s hundreds are good, but we just haven’t been consistent enough in Test cricket over a five-day period,” he said.
Sammy is optimistic that his team will bounce back in the shorter form of the game when they begin the One-Day and twenty20 series.
“The different format we can hopefully show a better side of us. We will have new players to bring in some new energy and hopefully bring the New Zealand public some entertainment over Christmas.”
The five-game One Day International (ODI) series starts at Eden Park on Boxing Day (Christmas Day Caribbean Time). (CMC)
