Stats highlights from New Zealand's comfortable seven-wicket victory against West Indies in Antigua.
Scott Styris and Craig McMillan finished it off in style, but New Zealand's comprehensive seven-wicket victory was set up by their bowlers. Shane Bond and Michael Mason were outstanding with the new ball, while Jacob Oram and Daniel Vettori backed them superbly later in the innings.
The numbers don't show it, but the first 11 overs of the West Indies innings witnessed perhaps the best new-ball spell of the tournament. Both Bond and Mason bowled impeccable lengths, as the table below shows: 86% of the balls pitched on a good length. They also induced a not-in-control factor of 20%, which means one in every five deliveries beat the bat, induced an edge or rapped the pads. Bond beat the bat or induced an edge seven times in his first five overs, while the corresponding figure for Mason was five in six overs.
Neither bowler was rewarded sufficiently at the time - though Bond later finished with three wickets - but that only meant an opportunity for Oram to finally get among the wickets and break his barren run with the ball. He has been in excellent touch with the bat, but in his
last eight ODIs - in which he bowled 50 overs - Oram had managed just a solitary wicket at an average of 245 and an economy rate of nearly five. His performance today enhances an already strong bowling line-up and gives New Zealand more attacking options through the rest of the tournament.
New Zealand hold the record for putting the opposition in to bat on the most occasions in the World Cup - this was their 22nd such instance. Sri Lanka are next best with 20. They have won 13 of those matches. Brendon McCullum took four catches in the West Indies innings, the second time he has achieved this feat in this tournament - he had also pouched four against England. Kamran Akmal, Denesh Ramdin and Brendan Taylor are the other wicketkeepers to have nailed four victims in a single innings in this tournament.With inputs from Rajesh Kumar.