Fleming fumes over misleading information

New Zealand skipper Steven Fleming has complained that a faulty scoring system had an unfair influence on his strategy in Sunday's decisive one-day defeat against the West Indies.

The West Indies team overhauled a robust New Zealand total of 291 to take the Cable & Wireless one-day series 3-1.

But a costly final over, in which Shivnarine Chanderpaul hit three boundaries off Daryl Tuffey, could have been avoided if the scoring system had remained on track, Fleming suggested.

The Black Caps skipper said inaccuracies on the Arnos Vale scoreboard prompted him to ask umpires Billy Doctrove and Asoka de Silva how many overs in-form medium pacer Paul Hitchcock had bowled.

After being informed that Hitchcock was bowling his eighth over, Fleming claimed that the umpires subsequently said the same man had only one over remaining.

"This has made us wild, as we had problems with the scoreboard all day... it could have cost us the match and the series," Fleming said.

Discrepancies on the scoreboard at the picturesque Arnos Vale ground were all too evident on Sunday.

"The scoreboard was giving us problems throughout the day. We had to ask for clarification about five times," Fleming said.

At one stage Fleming could be seen remonstrating angrily with the umpires as the scoreboard confusion seemed to spread onto the field.

He seemed to leave the field believing that Hitchcock had bowled one less over than the 10 to which he was entitled.

Fleming added that the New Zealand team intends to submit a formal complaint to match referee Wasim Raja.

He admitted that he felt "devastated" after 291 proved insufficient to save the series.

"We thought we had done enough through the match to win it," he reflected.

Hitchcock made his international debut on this series, and impressed by taking six wickets for 128 in 37 overs in the four full games of the series.

However, he also aggravated a shin injury in the process, and will fly home this week to rest a suspected stress fracture to his left fibula.

Also read: Chanderpaul steers Windies to victory

Mail Cricket Editor