Sport · Cricket

Hetmyer and Rutherford Fire West Indies to a Consolation Win as New Zealand Take the Series

The batting finally clicked at Kensington Oval, where West Indies chased down 269 to win the final one-dayer by two wickets. It came a match too late: New Zealand had already sealed the five-game series.

By Vincypowa News Staff  |  Bridgetown · July 22, 2026

West Indies ended a frustrating one-day series with the kind of batting they had promised all tour but rarely delivered, chasing down 269 to beat New Zealand by two wickets in the fifth and final ODI at Kensington Oval in Bridgetown. The win was a consolation rather than a turning point. New Zealand had already clinched the series by taking the fourth match, and the visitors leave the Caribbean as 3-2 winners.

For most of the tour West Indies had been undone by their own collapses, so the sight of a chase completed with 15 balls to spare, even with eight wickets down, will have felt like relief as much as celebration. The innings turned on a fifth-wicket stand of 95 between Sherfane Rutherford and Shimron Hetmyer, two of the region’s biggest hitters finally given a stage that suited them.

The chase that finally landed

Rutherford set the tone with 61 off 58 balls, clearing the ropes five times, before Hetmyer, recalled for this series after more than a year out of the side, saw the job through with an unbeaten 69 from 64 and four sixes of his own. Ackeem Auguste had given the reply an early charge with 34 from 24 at the top, and captain Shai Hope steadied things with 39. West Indies cleared the boundary 13 times in all, a tally that tells its own story after two innings earlier in the series when they were bowled out cheaply. New Zealand made them work to the end, Jacob Duffy taking three for 67 and Jayden Lennox three for 35, but the target was reached in the 48th over.

Earlier, New Zealand had posted 268 for 9, a competitive if not commanding total built on half-centuries from Tom Latham (69), Nick Kelly (64) and Will Young (56). West Indies bowled with discipline through the middle overs, Alzarri Joseph returning the best figures with two for 38 from his ten, and the young seamer Vitel Lawes again catching the eye with two for 63 on a tour that has done his reputation no harm.

A first real total of the series, and at last a chase to match it.

A series that got away

The result flatters a scoreline that was, for long stretches, one-sided. West Indies had actually started well, winning the opening match in Guyana by seven wickets, but then lost three in a row as New Zealand’s spinners took control. Left-armer Jayden Lennox was the tormentor, claiming 5 for 19 in the second match and 4 for 52 in the third as the home batting folded for 138 and then 140 on turning Providence pitches. By the time the tour reached Barbados, New Zealand had the momentum, and a one-wicket thriller in the fourth ODI put the series beyond reach.

For West Indies supporters across the region, the takeaways are mixed but not all bleak. The top order’s fragility against quality spin remains the problem that keeps costing them, and it is one they will need to solve before the next assignment. Yet Hetmyer looked close to his best on his return, Rutherford confirmed his value as a finisher, and Lawes offered a genuine reason for optimism about the bowling to come. A dead rubber does not change a series result, but it can still tell you something about the direction of a side. On Tuesday night in Bridgetown, the signs were better than the scoreline suggests.