West Indies' Daren Powell (right) is bowled in front of the New Zealand wicketkeeper, Brendon McCullum, in the third one-day international cricket match at Westpac Stadium in Wellington, New Zealand, yesterday. - AP

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (CMC):

New Zealand capitalised on an abysmal batting display by the West Indies to cruise to an easy seven-wicket win in the third one-day international yesterday and square the five-match series 1-1.

Sent in to bat, West Indies never came to terms with a disciplined Kiwi attack, led by captain and Man-of-the-Match Daniel Vettori, and were bundled out for 128 off 41.4 overs.

In pursuit of a straightforward target, New Zealand stumbled early on before recovering to post 129 for three off 20.3 overs and clinch the encounter at the Westpac Stadium.

They were led by Ross Taylor, who rode his luck well to hit an attacking, unbeaten 51 in an unbroken 89-run, fourth-wicket partnership with Daniel Flynn, who stroked 23.

The right-handed Taylor was lucky to survive an appeal for a catch at the wicket, off Daren Powell, when he had scored nine, as he swished at a delivery down the leg-side. Television replays showed he gloved the ball to wicketkeeper Denesh Ramdin.

Taylor made the reprieve count, striking five fours and three sixes, off 50 balls, to punish the West Indies and swing the momentum in the series back the hosts' way.

WOEFULLY INADEQUATE

Despite defending a woefully inadequate total, West Indies seemed poised to stage a dramatic comeback when Powell grabbed three wickets in the space of 10 balls to reduce the Black Caps from 34 without loss, to 40 for three in the eighth over.

Brendon McCullum, who smashed three fours in 18 off 14 balls and Jesse Ryder (14) had given the Kiwis a breezy start before Powell orchestrated the mini collapse.

He had McCullum caught at third man by Ramnaresh Sarwan off the third ball of his third over as the batsman backed away to give himself room to hit out, in the sixth over of the innings.

The very next delivery, Ryder slammed a wide ball to cover where Nikita Miller took a low, well-judged catch.

In his next over, Powell accounted for Jamie How, without scoring, inducing a pull from the right-hander for Jerome Taylor to take a comfortable catch running around on the deep backward square boundary.

Any hopes of West Indies pulling off a spectacular victory were soon erased, however, as Taylor, in particular, set about the West Indies attack with gluttonous relish.

He took two boundaries from Powell's fifth over that cost 12 runs and then smashed fast bowler Fidel Edwards powerfully over long on in his sixth over for the first of his three sixes, to move into overdrive.

With the match getting away from the Windies, Taylor inflicted even more misery, stroking the fifth ball of Edwards' next over for a superb six over cover, as the over hemorrhaged 19 runs.

VARIED ATTACK

With victory in sight at 103 for three, at the end of the 19th over, Taylor put an exclamation point on the Kiwis' performance, glancing left-arm spinner Miller for four before cracking the final delivery of his third over over mid-wicket for six to raise his half-century.

Earlier, Vettori captured four for 20 from 10 miserly overs of left-arm spin, while fast bowlers Kyle Mills (2-31) and Tim Southee (2-36) both finished with two wickets apiece, as West Indies batsmen failed to come to grips with the varied attack.

They lost opener Xavier Marshall without scoring to the fourth ball of the innings, with the score on one, and never recovered despite a resilient top score of 45 by Shivnarine Chanderpaul playing in his first game of the ODI series.

The left-hander, who missed the first two matches with a hand injury, faced 77 balls and struck four fours while holding the innings together as wickets clattered around him.

Embarrassment

Precariously perched at 74 for eight in the 30th over, West Indies were spared total embarrassment by two spirited lower-order partnerships.

First, Chanderpaul shared a crucial ninth-wicket stand of 27 off 29 balls with tail-ender Miller, who was one of just four batsmen to reach double figures, finishing unbeaten on 25 from 36 balls.

The duo gathered valuable runs with bold but sensible stroke play, a quality which had earlier deserted the top order as they crumbled meekly.

Then, Miller combined in a last-wicket stand of 27 with Edwards, who hung around for 13 before lofting off-spinner Jeetan Patel to deep mid-wicket where How did well to take a swirling catch, to signal the end of the West Indies innings.

West Indies' Daren Powell (left) high fives with Shawn Findlay after Powell took the wicket of New Zealand's Jamie How (unseen), in their third One-Day International cricket match at Westpac Stadium in Wellington, New Zealand, yesterday. - AP