Windies T20 skipper Carlos Brathwaite pointed to a poor over from bowler Kesrick Williams as a major contributing factor in a 47-runs defeat to New Zealand in the opening Twenty20 game in Nelson on Thursday.
Young gun Glenn Phillips racked up 55, while Collin Munro hit 53 to lead New Zealand to 187-7 from their 20-over allotment against the reigning T20 world champions.
Facing a sizeable target of 188 to win, the Windies batting line-up collapsed after star opener Chris Gayle fell cheaply for 12 and were eventually all out for 140 in the 19th over. Brathwaite, however, believes the game was lost with the ball after New Zealand added 25 runs in the final over from Williams.
“For the first 19 overs we bowled as good as we did. But it happens. Kesrick Williams has been the best bowler in the world this calendar year and he just went awry,” Brathwaite said.
“It wasn’t even a bad day, just one bad over and that gave them some momentum going into our innings and we never really got that big over,” he added.
Tim Southee, who partnered Mitchell Santner in the final over run spree, acknowledged that New Zealand needed the bonus runs after struggling to 162 for seven after 19 overs.
“We struggled early on with the bat but the guys hung in there and were able to finish really strongly and then the way we fielded and bowled was exceptional.” (Sportsmax)
