Santner special trumps late charge from WI as NZ win 1st T20I by 13 runs

A solid innings of 47 by returning captain Kane Williamson and a dashing 33 from 15 balls by Jimmy Neesham propelled New Zealand to a 13run win over the West Indies in the first of three Twenty20 cricket internationalsNeesham struck three fours from the last three balls and 23 runs from the last over of the innings as New Zealand made 1855 after being sent in to bat at Sabina Park on WednesdayLeftarm spinner Mitchell Santner took 319 as New Zealand restricted the West Indies to 1727 in 20 oversThere was a lot of spin which was a big surprise said Santner who was voted player of the matchI think the lengths are key against these guys They can hit you pretty far so back of a length worked today and as a unit we were able to pick up wickets which was pretty keyNew Zealands innings had two parts separated by a lengthy rain breakOpeners Martin Guptill and Devon Conway gave the tourists a strong start putting on 63 for the first wicket But the pair fell to consecutive deliveries from Odean Smith who went on to take careerbest T20 figures of 332Guptill fell to a brilliant onehanded catch by Shimron Hetmeyer who was backed up against the boundary at deep point while Conways innings of 43 from 29 ended when he topedged a catch to wicketkeeper Devon ThomasThe rain came in the 12th over with New Zealand on 952 and Williamson at the crease with Glenn Phillips Players were off the field for almost two hours and when play resumed New Zealand immediately lost Phillips for 17The New Zealand innings briefly lost momentum but Williamson reestablished the impetus of the innings by taking 33 runs from his next 18 deliveriesAlso Read ICC Mens T20I Player Rankings Shreyas Iyer reaches 19th spot spinners Kuldeep Yadav Ravi Bishnoi make advancesHe finally was out to another brilliant catch on the boundary this time from Hayden Walsh who dashed from midwicket to pocket a comfortable catch at speedNeesham struck a six from the second ball of an over in which he also was dropped by Romario Shepherd from the bowling of Jason Holder The West Indies paid the price with Neeshams three fours from the last three ballsWe want to get better as a group but in saying that I was happy with the performances West Indies captain Nicholas Pooran saidSantner bowled very well and Ish Sodhi got away with a few Scores above 175180 are tricky for us Unfortunately losing is contagious and were a losing side at the momentShamarh Brooks anchored the top of the West Indies innings with 42 runs at almost a run a ball But there was a lack of consistent momentum afterwardPooran with 15 from eight balls Holder with 25 from 19 and Rovman Powell with 18 from 12 all threatened to take control of the game but couldnt carry onFinally Shepherd and Odean Smith shared a 50 partnership from 23 balls for the eighth wicket to fan the West Indies hopesShepherd struck an unbeaten 31 from 16 balls and Smith 27 from 12 But the West Indies came to the last over needing 26 runs and the task proved too muchThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever