A blazing century opening partnership by Jesse Ryder and Brendon McCullum and tight bowling by Daniel Vettori helped New Zealand to a 36-run victory over West Indies in their second Twenty20 international on Sunday.
Ryder (62) and McCullum (59) smashed the West Indies attack all over the small Seddon Park ground in Hamilton to give New Zealand a 130-run opening partnership, though the middle order wasted the great start before the hosts reached 191 for nine.
Ramnaresh Sarwan scored a composed 53, while Kieron Pollard (38) and Denesh Ramdin (30) produced cameos at the end of the visitors' innings after Vettori, debutant Ewen Thompson and Jacob Oram had strangled the West Indies top order.
The visitors, who relied on captain Chris Gayle to single handedly win the first match at Auckland two days ago in a super over eliminator, suffered a poor start when he was deceived by the pace of Thompson's second delivery and caught for one.
Sarwan then combined with Xavier Marshall (10) in a 44-run partnership before Oram and Vettori bowled some tight overs that shackled the visitors' run chase.
That pressure told with Marshall, Shivnarine Chanderpaul (five), Shawn Findlay (13) and Sarwan falling in quick succession to leave West Indies struggling at 87-5 in the 13th over.
Ramdin and Pollard then combined to give their side a glimmer of hope, particularly when the latter bludgeoned three boundaries and a six off the 17th over bowled by Tim Southee, before Kyle Mills conceded just six runs off the next over.
Southee then gave away just eight runs in the 19th over before Jeetan Patel had both Ramdin and Pollard caught in the deep in the final over when the result was a foregone conclusion.
Vettori finished with 2-19 off four overs, while Patel took 2-12 off two overs, though his second over was a double-wicket maiden.
New Zealand's total was built on Ryder and McCullum's partnership but after they were dismissed, their team mates limped through their final overs with James Franklin (20) the only other batsman to reach double figures.
Gayle, Jerome Taylor and Pollard took two wickets each, though West Indies were let down with some poor catching, fielding and wayward bowling that produced 12 byes and five wides.
The teams next meet in the opening one-day international of a five-match series in Queenstown on Wednesday.
