New Zealand Hopes Series Leveling

St Kitts: New Zealand is hoping to bounce back in the one-day series after securing their first win of the West Indies tour with an 88-run victory in the third ODI at St Kitts.

The win came at a cost though with BJ Watling sustaining a leg injury that puts him in doubt for the rest of the series.

Watling has been the shining light amid a fairly gloomy Black Caps batting order and his would be a significant loss if deemed unfit for the fourth one-dayer.

After again setting a less than imposing total of 249, it looked as if the Black Caps may be moving towards their fifth loss in as many matches. But after dismissing danger man Chris Gayle for just 11 in the ninth over, the Kiwis spotted their chance and grabbed it.

"He's put us away in every game this series so far so to get him out really boosted the lads in the field and that's where probably things started," said skipper Kane Williamson.

"Its a great shift in momentum hopefully and putting a few things into practice in terms of lessons from the other games," stuff.co.nz quoted him, as saying.

Williamson was full of praise for his bowlers, who had the hosts on the ropes at 62-5, and particularly singled out the performance of debutant Trent Boult.

West Indies captain Darren Sammy refused to be disheartened by the reversal of fortunes and conceded that a more desperate side had outfield them.

Dwayne Smith made a comeback to the ODI squad after two years in England. In five matches since then, he has scored two half-centuries - a marked improvement over his three fifties from his previous 77 matches.

However, wicketkeeper Denesh Ramdin will miss the match due to his wedding. He has been replaced by Devon Thomas.

Teams from

West Indies DJG Sammy (captain), DJ Bravo, TL Best, J Charles, CH Gayle, SP Narine, KA Pollard, R Rampaul, AD Russell, MN Samuels, LMP Simmons, DR Smith, DC Thomas (wk)

New Zealand LRPL Taylor (captain), KS Williamson, TA Boult, DAJ Bracewell, DG Brownlie, AM Ellis, DR Flynn, MJ Guptill, TWM Latham (wk), BB McCullum, NL McCullum, KD Mills, TS Nethula, RJ Nicol, JDP Oram, TG Southee, BJ Watling (wk)

Stats and trivia

• Brendon McCullum has scored 213 runs in 13 games against West Indies at an average of 23.66. His ODI career average is 30.47
• West Indies have a 26-21 head-to-head record against New Zealand in all ODIs. However, in the last 10 years, New Zealand lead 11-4

Match facts
Saturday, July 14 2012
Start time 0930 local (1330 GMT)