(ESPNCRICINFO) – Everyone climbed onto the struggle bus in Christchurch, even Daryl Mitchell whose seventh ODI century cost him a little bit of his good health. A groin injury left him inside the dressing room for the entirety of the second innings, which wasn’t the worst thing ever. He could put his feet up and watch New Zealand pull off a seven-run victory.

A two-paced pitch that offered sideways movement throughout the day made batting a distasteful exercise. Mitchell seemed immune initially but soon he was battling not just a disciplined West Indies attack but also his own body breaking down from the stress. The fact that he was able to ride those challenges – and take New Zealand to a total of 269 – made the innings all the sweeter.

Mitchell must have felt it too. As soon as he reached his hundred, he whipped his helmet off and roared the word “yes” with so much emotion even the veins on his shaved head were popping all over the place. Performances like these were once the purview of Kane Williamson or Ross Taylor, two all-time Black Caps legends. Increasingly though, Mitchell has been putting himself up on their level, this 119 off 118 a prime example. No one else was able to make even half of those runs with Sherfane Rutherford’s 55 off 61 the next best score. Conditions at Hagley Oval on Sunday were not for the faint of heart.

West Indies suffered in their chase, the help that was already available in the day now exaggerated under lights. Keacy Carty spent most of his 67 balls as a crash test dummy. He would’ve been fine if it was just swing or just seam or just bounce. But all three kept combining at the behest of New Zealand’s quicks and all the West Indian No. 3 could do was steel himself for the body blows. The first 10 overs produced just 32 runs. The next nine 27. There were 30 balls in between when only seven scoring shots were possible. And this was the change-bowlers – Jacob Duffy and Zak Foulkes – in operation.

Shai Hope (37 off 45) and Rutherford fared a little better and New Zealand shelled a series of catches in the back end, but West Indies had fallen too far behind to be able to catch up.

They came into this game with five changes – three spinners out, three seamers in. The best of them was Matthew Forde who was on a hat-trick in the seventh over, removing Rachin Ravindra for 4 and Will Young on his 50th ODI for a golden duck.

That’s when Mitchell walked in and immediately flipped the game on its head. Till then, New Zealand’s batters were trapped in the crease and Forde was given the leeway to do whatever he wanted. Mitchell, though, walked at the fast bowler, trusting his reflexes to deal with the speed of the ball – which on average was only 122 kph – and negating the biggest thing that Forde had going for him – sideways movement, particularly into the right-hander. West Indies tried to stop that by bringing the wicketkeeper up but that only slowed Mitchell down. It didn’t uproot him.