Sarwan needed to finish job

Having someone in the top three bat through its innings was crucial to the West Indies five-wicket win over New Zealand at Christchurch on Saturday.

That was the opinion of Ramnaresh Sarwan who ended the game 67 not out as the West Indies scored 158, the rain-adjusted target in the 28-overs match.

"We've always needed someone to bat through. We've always said how important it is for one of the top three to bat through fortunately I took that responsibility and we were able to win," he said.

"I think what worked in our favour is that we have got quite a relaxed dressing room and that really helped us. But nevertheless I thought it was a really good game.

"The most important thing was that we wanted to form a partnership and the partnership between myself and Denesh [Ramdin] really came at the right time."

He and Ramdin added 48 from 32 balls to see the side home with a ball to spare.

Ramdin's in the outcome would be a confidence booster for him after the tough tour he had had to date.

"He has been under pressure but I think he played really well today. And he took the pressure off me to be honest," Sarwan said.

Sarwan said he was always confident that in the final countdown, and needing 40 from four overs, the win would be achievable, as long as they could get one big over out of the bowlers.

They achieved that and gained a vital lead over the home team with three games remaining.

Sarwan said they tried to keep a close watch on Daniel Vettori because of his ability to take wickets during the middle overs and the key was not to give him too many wickets.

And while Vettori gained Gayle's wicket, the other batsmen adapted pretty well to him, he thought.

"I thought as a bowling unit we contributed really well, so that was good to see and we'll be looking to take the same sort of form into the next game

"It is important that we continue from where we left off this evening," he said looking ahead to the three remaining games."

There was still nothing separating the sides after two Tests, two Twenty20 games and now the first ODI.

"Momentum is important and we don't want to lose that. Obviously we've gained it from this game," he said.

At the stage when New Zealand put the clamps on boundaries with some tight fielding, Sarwan said he wasn't too frustrated. He was just looking to score as many singles as he could to rotate the strike.

And the key at the end of it was having wickets in hand so they could launch and that really paid off, he said.