It was the first day of 2014, hosts New Zealand desperately needed a victory against West Indies to stand a contention to win the five-match ODI series. West Indies had clinched the first match and the second ODI was washed due to rains. The clouds of rain were over the 3rd ODI as well and the game was restricted to 21 over innings for each side.
Winning the toss, West Indies invited the Kiwis to bat and things seemed like going their way. Martin Guptill was dismissed cheaply by Jason Holder at a personal score of just 1 run.
Jesse Ryder and captain Brendon McCullam got together to launch a counterattack on the Caribbean bowlers. The duo zoomed through a 50-run partnership before the Kiwi captain was sent back to the pavilion by mystery spinner Sunil Narine. The new batsman Ross Taylor was also sent back soon, and the Kiwi were 84 for 3 wickets in the 8th over.
Ryder was on the crease with new batter Corey Anderson but instead of toning down the aggressive style of batting, the duo took things forward from where McCullam had left. The Kiwi were past the 100 marks in just the 9th over and the Anderson-Ryder duo was hitting the ball all over the park. First, Ryder completed his 50 in 23 balls and that was bettered by a 20 ball half-century featuring just 2 fours and six sixes by Anderson.
The balls hardly remained in the ground as the batters continued the boundary fest. Taking on the bowling attack, Ryder moved to his century in just 42 balls.
While Ryder’s inning was not slow by any parameter, Anderson’s knock bettered it with its power hitting. The southpaw hit six fours and 14 sixes to smash a 36-ball century — the quickest in ODI history back then. Anderson surpassed Pakistan’s Shahid Afridi who had scored a 37-ball century against Sri Lanka back in 1996.
Thanks to Ryder and Anderson’s fiery knocks, the Kiwi finished with 283 runs on the board.
The pressure of the humungous total got a better hold of the Caribbean batters and in reply, the team could only manage 124 for the loss of five wickets in their allotted 21 overs.
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