West Indies over the line in thriller with Hetmyer, Rutherford starring

Shimron Hetmyer and Sherfane Rutherford guided West Indies to victory in a nervy finish, chasing down the target with a match-winning partnership. Tense finish The chase went down to the wire, with West Indies under pressure before the pair steadied things. Both batters took control in the middle/late overs. Hetmyer provided aggressive hitting while Rutherford played the finisher’s role to get West Indies over the line. Their stand turned the game and hauled the Windies home, sealing a hard-fought win. New Zealand had put up 268 for 9, the highest first-innings total of the five-match series and they were making it seem a whole lot bigger. Mitchell Santner came on in the tenth over. Pace disappeared by the 16th. Spinners bowling in tandem gave away just 37 in 13 overs. Keacy Carty produced the slowest innings of 20 or more by a West Indian since Marlon Samuels' 25 off 65 against Pakistan in July 2013. And then he fell for 20 off 54. Lennox in elite company Jayden Lennox took his 14th wicket of the series, moving past Shane Warne, Anil Kumble, Sunil Narine, and Shahid Afridi for most wickets by a spinner in a bilateral ODI series. Still well off the all-time record, but a big achievement. A loose "long hop" from Lennox was enough to get Shai Hope. Hope looked frustrated as he left, having thrown his wicket away while trying to release pressure. At the time Hope fell, Keacy Carty was on 42 balls with 29 dots. With 151 runs still needed, the captain’s dismissal summed up West Indies’ struggles. Hope’s walk off showed the helplessness — he was trying to break the shackles but only increased the pressure on the chase. As Hope walked back, a vibrant crowd in Bridgetown, who had watched one of their own being celebrated at the innings break as CWI honoured Kemar Roach for taking 300 wickets in Test cricket, feared the worst. They had seen New Zealand's spinners tie batters to the crease. They had felt the pressure build without any release. They had stomached the turgid scoring. Even Hope, wedded to a plan of judging the turn off the pitch, was allowing the opposition to dictate terms. That changed once he and Carty departed. New Zealand fight back Being New Zealand, they made it tense. Jacob Duffy took 2 wickets in 2 balls in the 45th over and suddenly the Windies tail was exposed. At that moment Hetmyer was on the ground getting fluids from the physio. Not always available for West Indies due to fitness, availability, or discipline issues, but he was fully present here. With 21 needed off 32 balls and only 2 wickets left, the game was on a knife edge. He then took the game away from Duffy, who looked like he was winning it for NZ: Smashed an attempted yorker that became a low full toss out of the ground Hit a change-up so hard it got stuck in the roof Hetmyer finished 69 off 64 balls*. It was only the 3rd time Hetmyer had been unbeaten in a chase. The other two he made 7 and 11. This time it was all him. West Indies need wins to avoid the roulette that is a ten-team qualifying tournament that will swallow six of them up, denying them a place in the 2027 World Cup. They really went through the wringer getting this win, and maybe that puts them in good stead going forward. They'll remember how they were almost beaten but just didn't let it happen. West Indies 269 for 8 (Hetmyer 69*, Rutherford 61, Lennox 3-35, Duffy 3-67) beat New Zealand 268 for 9 (Latham 69, Kelly 64, Young 56, Joseph 2-38, Lawes 2-63) by two wickets