The West Indies were in for a shocking defeat prior to their debut match at the World Twenty20 Championship. The team lost to New Zealand in a warm up match at Guyana further damping their spirits and the New Zealand hero who rose to claim the fame is Scott Styris. New Zealand was ineffective in putting up a decent score on the board but Styris bowled his team towards victory.
The home team etched for a disastrous finish while chasing a meager score of 125 runs. The team lost quick wickets and were left stranded after losing all ten wickets for just 49 runs. Shivnarine Chanderpaul and skipper Chris Gayle started good and contributed a partnership of 68 runs. Things were looking good for Gayle even as he hit an incoming delivery for a six over the stands. However, the joy was short-lived and Styris soon took over his role and smashed the middle order for 4 wickets for 18 runs. What was left was destroyed by Shane Bond when he caught Chanderpaul (53) for fine catch at the long on.
As for the New Zealand batsmen, only Jacob Oram and Ross Taylor were able to reach double scores of 46 and 50 respectively. However skipper Shane Bond delivered some costly overs though he dismissed 2 batsmen for 46 runs. New Zealand is all set to begin this year’s Twenty20 championship with their first match against Sri Lanka on Friday, 30th April, 2010. The West Indies also debut on the same day with a match against Ireland.