The first T20 match of the West Indies was played against New Zealand at Auckland on Feb 16 2006 when West Indies visited New Zealand. At that time, Shivnarine Chanderpaul was the leader of the West Indies team while New Zealand was playing under the leadership of Stephen Fleming. New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming won the toss and invited the opponent to bat first.
Since its debut in T20 international, West Indies has played 145 T20I out of which they have achieved victory in 62 and lost 71 T20I with 3 ties and 9 with no result. Against New Zealand, they have contested 15 T20I and won 3, and lost 8 matches.
Chris Gayle, one of the world-class openers today, came out with Daren Ganga to open the bat. Stephen Fleming handed over the new ball to James Franklin to open the attack. West Indies did not get a good start and lost his first wicket of Gayle at 14 runs only. Shane Bond, one of the best pacers of the world at that time, took the wicket of Gayle in 3.4 overs. Runako Morton came at the number 3 position to join Daren Ganga, but he could not stay longer and was sent back by Styris at the score of 28 only.
Then West Indies lost their another wicket of Dwayne Smith by run out. Nothing was going in the favor of the West Indies, their top order was completely demolished by Kiwis. Daren Ganga tried to manage the situation but another wicket-taking delivery of Styris dismissed him.
West Indies had lost 4 wickets at the score of 52 runs at the run rate of below 6 runs per over. They were under pressure then the skipper Shivnarine Chanderpaul tried to cover up the damage and he made crucial 26 runs with Dwayne Bravo unbeaten 19 runs. Finally, West Indies could make 126 runs with the loss of 7 wickets in the 20 overs, they lost their two wickets by run-out, Dwayne Smith and Wavell Hinds. The target was not big for New Zealand and they could get it easily but the story was different.
Lou Vincent and New Zealand skipper Stephen Fleming came out to the middle to chase the target and the new ball was handed over to Ian Bradshaw to give some early damage to New Zealand. The start was not good for New Zealand also and they lost their captain’s wicket in the 2nd over at the score of 14 runs only. Nathan Astle came to join Vincent but he could not stay longer and lost his wicket at 45 runs total. Scott Styris and Vincent then handled the situation and took the score to 73 runs, then a spell of Dwayne Bravo sent Styris in 9.3 and Chris Cairns in 11.4 overs, at the score of 80 runs.
The New Zealand batsman came under pressure and they lost two other wickets of Hamish Marshall within 8 runs and then the score was 88/6 in 14.2 overs. The match was looking one-sided after the 1st inning but it went into a critical situation. Finally, New Zealand needed 17 runs in the last over, and it looked like New Zealand was on the verge of failure but James Franklin struck a six, and Shane Bond hit a four in the last ball to level the score.
The match was tied and then the result was decided by a bowl-out which was won by New Zealand by 3-0. Dwayne Smith was the Man of the Match in the West Indies’ first T20I match.
Result: New Zealand won the match. Scorecard