West Indies will enter Tuesday’s second One-Day International against New Zealand in Napier needing a lift in both execution and awareness after a narrow seven-run defeat in Saturday’s opener in Christchurch.

Today’s match bowls off at 9 pm (T&T time), and although the tourists showed fight to take the previous contest deep, fast bowler Jayden Seales believes they must avoid repeating the lapses that cost them in the first game.

New Zealand were led to victory on the back of a superb 119 from Daryl Mitchell pushed the hosts to 269 for seven after 50 overs.

It was a total that Seales felt could have been much less.

Seales, who led the attack with three for 41, said the bowlers simply did not maximise the conditions or the ground.

“We could have tried and restricted them for less than 269,” he said. “I think we had too many mishits and probably didn’t use the dimensions of the ground as best as we could have.”

Those mistakes, he said, cannot be repeated on Tuesday.

“Assess fast and formulate plans while out on the field… once the pitch is looking a different way or the outfield is bigger on one side or a strong wind factor like the last match, [we have to] formulate plans to get them to play to where we want them to and try and restrict them to as less runs as possible.”

The batting will also need to improve, and a good start could make the difference.

On Saturday, the Windies limped to 87 for three in 26 overs, and even though Sherfane Rutherford’s 55 brought life to the chase, the early stall meant the visitors entered the final ten overs needing close to ten runs per over.

Seales saw positive signs in how the group held things together through to the back end of the inning, but insisted that they must rotate the strike more effectively.

“Just find a way to rotate the strike a bit better and capitalise when they give us the bad balls,” he said. “We didn’t get the big, big start that we would like… but to see the way the guys held it together and that they were fighting for the team and batting balls and trying to get accustomed to the conditions [was encouraging].”

While Keacy Carty and Shai Hope have provided runs for the Windies at the top, Seales noted that the other batters must be ready to step forward.

“Not every game they’re going to perform,” he said. “So it’s for the guys around to keep putting their hands up. Like we saw in the first game, we had a lot of starts. So it’s just for the boys to continue and push on.”
New Zealand will be without the centurion who hurt them most, with Seales acknowledging that while it may help, it also denies West Indies a chance to test themselves against the best. “Obviously, it’s a boost… but we wouldn’t be resting g our laurels,” he said.