New Zealand will enter the fourth ODI against the West Indies as favourites to go 2-1 up with Nelson hosting the game.
So, the West Indies tourists that have travelled around India and New Zealand for the past few months, being battered and beaten almost everywhere that they have pitched up, managed to get themselves bludgeoned to a defeat in Queenstown, in the third ODI of the five match series against the Black Caps, that even by the standards of this disastrous trip was quite remarkable.
Thanks to a narrow two wicket victory in the first game in Auckland, followed by an abandoned match in Napier, the West Indies found themselves on a temporary high during their trip. However, their visit to Queenstown has left them at the bottom of one of the deepest troughs of recent years.
The third match of the series looked likely to also fall foul of the weather, but the teams managed to take the field long enough for a 21 over per side match to take place.
As the reigning World T20 champions, one might have thought that this would play into the tourists hands. On the contrary that were flayed to a defeat that will leave the team wondering where it is going, as they prepare for the next game in Nelson.
New Zealand powered their way to an astonishing 283-4 in their 21 overs, with Corey Anderson smashing the fastest ever international century, off of just 36 deliveries, and Jesse Ryder, the sixth fastest in history, from 46 deliveries.
The tourists excuses have included the cold conditions and the one over spells that they bowled. But for an international team to be floundering for excuses to describe such a woefully inept performance, doesn’t suggest that they have a great deal of desire or confidence in their own abilities left in the tank.
The team’s demeanour ahead of the Nelson game might have been helped in the batsmen had put on a half decent performance, but only two of their players managed to score at a run a ball, and 124-5 in reply to the New Zealand total, was the latest in a long line of pathetic performances.