FLEMING
AUCKLAND, New Zealand CMC:
WHILE ACKNOWLEDGING that the West Indies played the better cricket in the fifth and final One-Day International (ODI) at Eden Park on Saturday, New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming is satisfied with his team's overall effort in the series and is now looking forward to the Test matches.
"It's disappointing tonight, but we can't get away from the fact that we've beaten this West Indies side 4-1 and that's a pretty proud achievement for us," he stated after the tourists sneaked a three-wicket win with two balls to spare to deny the Black Caps a repetition of the 5-0 sweep they enjoyed six years ago.
"I guess the one thing that the West Indies did better than us was that they hung in there long enough so that they could play a few shots at the end," Fleming conceded.
"We felt that they would have to play a few big shots to keep up with the rate. The 'keeper (Denesh Ramdin) came out and played a match-winning innings. It was tight but we just weren't quite good enough."
Ramdin's 38 off 23 balls gave the West Indies important acceleration in the final overs, and while noting that the result would obviously lift the morale of his opponents, the New Zealand skipper expected his squad to be even more determined to prove their worth in the upcoming Test series.
"They'll talk about that win for the next three or four days, but 4-1 is what we will be focusing on," he stated.
"Test cricket is so different anyway, even if it was 5-0, we would not have taken a great deal out of it.
"We're now looking forward to getting the whites back on. We haven't played Test cricket for a while and we've got some work to do in the Test arena," Fleming added.
"We haven't played Test cricket that well and we've been looking forward to it for some time."
REAL FIGHT
Scott Styris, whose innings of 90 lifted New Zealand to a respectable total of 233 in the final one-dayer, expected the West Indies to show some real fight sooner or later on this tour.
"They are a proud people. They've come here to win, and probably barring the last game in Napier, they've fought really well in this series," said the all-rounder.
"I never thought we were done and dusted at any stage of this match. Ramdin came in and played really well and that was the turning point of the match."
The two teams are scheduled to have practice sessions at Eden Park over the next three days leading up to the start of the start of the Test series on Thursday (Wednesday evening Caribbean time).
The second Test follows at the Basin Reserve in Wellington from March 17, with the third and final Test at McLean Park in Napier scheduled to get underway on March 25.
