New Zealand v West Indies
Richard Hobson
15-Apr-2005
At Lord's, July 10. New Zealand won by 107 runs. Toss: West Indies.
A one-sided final played out between showers made a fitting end to this unmemorable tournament.
Lord's was roughly half-full when New Zealand completed their biggest one-day victory over West
Indies at around 8 p.m. Many of the crowd had shuffled away after a particularly heavy shower
some 90 minutes earlier, which threatened to take the match into a reserve day. At that point West
Indies, who had selected nine batsmen, required 158 from 19 overs with five wickets left. But,
on a slow pitch, New Zealand were in their element. Vettori completed his best one-day figures,
five for 30, which were also the best in a one-day international at Lord's. He executed two runouts
as well in a brilliant team fielding performance. There was joy too for Harris, when he became
the first New Zealander to take 200 wickets at this level - and the second all-rounder after Sanath
Jayasuriya to combine this landmark with 4,000 runs. Fleming had been happy to buck the trend
by batting first after losing the toss. Along with Astle and Marshall, he gave New Zealand another
strong start, and McMillan manoeuvred the ball intelligently so that the loss of the last seven
wickets for 49 runs in 58 balls was not decisive.
Man of the Match: D. L. Vettori. Attendance: 25,988; receipts £802,685.
Man of the Series: S. P. Fleming.