NORTH SOUND, Antigua (CMC) – West Indies Cricket coach Ottis Gibson says an all-round team effort was responsible for his side’s nine-wicket win in the first Test against New Zealand at the Sir Vivian Richards Playing Field in Antigua on Sunday. The West Indies now lead the two-match series one-nil after a game featuring top performances from a number of players including batsmen Chris Gayle, Kieran Powell, and Assad Fudadin and bowlers Kemar Roach, Sunil Narine and Ravi Rampaul.
The home side is now poised to sweep the New Zealand tour of the region after winning the one-day and Twenty20 series earlier.
“As we saw in the one day series it was a total team effort and in this game again it was the same,” Gibson said in a post-game news conference.
“If you looked across the team everybody put his hand up and did something to help the team to win”.
Gayle, a century-maker in the first innings, scored an unbeaten 64 to become the first West Indies batsman to score 1 000 runs against the Black Caps in Tests.
Roach snared five for 60 from 23.2 overs to restrict New Zealand in their second innings.
And, Narine ended with three for 91 from 42 overs for match figures of 8-223 that earned him the Man-of-the-Match award, while Rampaul finished with two for 52 from 17 overs.
“It was just an outstanding performance, the way we used our skills with the bat, the way Powell batted in the first innings with such maturity,” said Gibson.
“Obviously Chris dominated, young Fudadin getting his first Test 50, Narsingh Deonarine continuing with his good form, then Sammy coming in at the back end and scoring some runs as well and then the way we went out and executed the plans that we set out to get them out”.
The victory for West Indies over New Zealand was the first for the Caribbean side in 11 Tests.
West Indian cricketers are also now fancying their chances of moving up the ICC rankings for Test-playing nations.
“We were patient when we had to be patient, aggressive when we had to be aggressive, it is a whole team effort and the whole team is very happy with their work,” said Gibson.
“We always said teams in and around us we need to beat if we are to move up the rankings so it was good from our point of view to win this game”.
West Indies is ranked number eight, three ratings points lower than seven-ranked New Zealand.
The two sides conclude their Test series with the second and final Test, starting on Thursday at Sabina Park in Jamaica.