Lennox stars with 5-19 as Black Caps level ODI series against West Indies

Jayden Lennox took the third-best figures by a New Zealand spinner in men’s ODIs as the visitors leveled the series with a five-wicket victory on a tricky surface offering turn.

West Indies lost all ten wickets for 75 as they collapsed to 138, with Lennox taking 5-19, and while the chase wasn’t always straightforward, Tom Latham guided New Zealand to an ultimately comfortable win.

Lennox, who had not taken more than two wickets in his previous six ODIs, went through West Indies’ middle order with the first four of his successes being bowled. His final return left him behind just Ish Sodhi’s 6-39 and Daniel Vettori’s 5-7 among New Zealand spinners.

After Henry Nicholls and Will Young knocked off a decent chunk of the chase with a 35-run opening stand, New Zealand lost 3-17, including the run out of Mark Chapman for a second-ball duck when Vitel Lawes produced a sharp piece of fielding at cover.

Young had been lbw to Alzarri Joseph and Nicholls top-edged a sweep.

Latham and Daryl Mitchell steadied the chase before Khary Pierre jolted the progress. Mitchell ran past one against the left-arm spinner and Dean Foxcroft got too far across when he missed a sweep to leave New Zealand 96-5.

But Latham and Michael Bracewell went about the remainder of the task with calmness – a pair of boundaries for Bracewell off Gudakesh Motie taking him past 1000 runs in ODIs – and New Zealand had plenty of breathing space in the end.

Everything had looked much different early in West Indies’ innings before the spinners took hold as John Campbell and Ackeem Auguste added 63 for the first wicket, increasing the tempo late in the powerplay with 22 runs coming off the ninth and tenth overs.

But Bracewell broke through and things quickly started to unravel with the ball gripping, although there was also some questionable shot selection.

The nine wickets shared between New Zealand’s spinners was their most in an ODI innings. After the initial opening spells from Jacob Duffy and Matthew Fisher – the latter who pushed the speed gun to 146kph – New Zealand did not use pace again.

Lennox’s first came when he beat Shai Hope’s drive to take leg stump and he continued to hit the stumps with regularity. Sherfane Rutherford could only watch as his defensive shot bobbled back to dislodge the bails.

Motie was beaten on the back foot and Matthew Forde had a wild swipe across the line. Lennox claimed his fifth when he wrapped up the innings by earning a borderline lbw against Lawes.

Captain Mitchell Santner also played his part with two key top order wickets as he showed his skills. The ball after spinning one sharply down the leg side to Campbell he beat the left-hander with an arm ball that kept low.

Santner then claimed Keacy Carty, one of the matchwinners in the opening match, with a perfect left-arm spinner’s dismissal as the delivery spun past the edge to graze off stump.

Outside of Campbell’s 43, Amir Jangoo was the only other West Indies batter to reach 20 before being lbw on the sweep to Bracewell as he ran out of partners.

The series continues with one more match in Guyana on Thursday before the final two are staged in Barbados. The first of those on Sunday has been changed to a day game. (Cricinfo)