Introduction: New Zealand National Cricket Team vs West Indies Cricket Team Timeline

Cricket rivalries built over decades rarely get the attention they deserve, and the contest between New Zealand and the West Indies is one of those quietly compelling ones. It does not carry the commercial weight of an Ashes series or the emotional charge of a India-Pakistan clash, but it has produced some of the sport’s most memorable individual performances, several landmark moments in New Zealand cricket history, and a genuinely competitive head-to-head record across all three formats. This article walks through the full timeline of this fixture, from its beginnings in the early 1950s to the most recent series played in the middle of 2026, and lays out the numbers, the context, and the standout moments along the way.

A Quick Snapshot of the Rivalry

Before diving into the history, it helps to understand where the two teams currently stand against each other overall.

In One Day Internationals, the two sides have met 68 times, with New Zealand winning 30 matches and West Indies winning 31, while seven games ended without a result — a rivalry that is about as evenly poised as international cricket gets. In Twenty20 Internationals, New Zealand holds a clearer edge, having won 11 of the 20 meetings between the sides to West Indies’ 7, with 2 matches ending without a result. In Test cricket, the ledger has tilted more heavily toward the Black Caps in the modern era, even though West Indies dominated the earliest encounters between the two nations.

That balance is exactly what makes the rivalry worth tracing chronologically: it began with West Indies as the clearly superior side, swung through a long period of parity, and has more recently favoured New Zealand, particularly in Tests and T20Is, while ODIs remain a coin toss.

The Early Years: 1950s to 1970s

1951–52: The First Meeting

The teams played their first-ever Test series against each other in New Zealand between February and March 1952. West Indies arrived directly from a tour of Australia, having just lost that series, and were captained by John Goddard. New Zealand, led by Bert Sutcliffe, faced a side that had recently beaten both India and England.

West Indies won that maiden two-Test series 1–0, with the other match drawn. Verdun Scott was New Zealand’s leading run-scorer with 158, while Tom Burtt took the most wickets for the hosts with eight. This was, in many ways, an uneven contest — West Indies had established Test match pedigree, while New Zealand was still finding its feet as a Test nation, having been granted full membership of the Imperial Cricket Conference only a couple of decades earlier.

1955–56: New Zealand’s First-Ever Test Win

This series stands as one of the most significant in New Zealand cricket history, for reasons that go well beyond the result against West Indies specifically. West Indies toured New Zealand between January and March 1956 for a four-match series, and their side included legendary names in Gary Sobers and Everton Weekes, both of whom had recently broken batting records during a New Zealand season.

New Zealand lost the first three Tests of that series and, with them, the series itself. But the fourth and final Test at Eden Park in Auckland turned into a piece of history. Under new captain John Reid, who had taken over the leadership from Harry Cave after the opening Test, New Zealand won that final match — their first Test victory after 45 attempts and 26 years since playing their first Test as a nation.

Reid’s aggressive innings of 84 anchored New Zealand’s first-innings total of 255. Tony MacGibbon and Harry Cave then shared eight wickets between them to bowl West Indies out for 145. New Zealand’s declared second innings featured a top score of 41 from wicketkeeper Sam Guillen, who had actually played for West Indies on their 1951–52 tour of Australia before settling in Christchurch and later turning out for New Zealand. Set 268 to win in two sessions, West Indies collapsed to 77 all out as Cave picked up another four-wicket haul and rain threatened to intervene. West Indies still won the series 3–1, but New Zealand’s breakthrough victory in that dead rubber remains one of the most celebrated moments in the country’s cricketing folklore.

1971–72: A Series of Draws

New Zealand toured the Caribbean in 1971–72 for a five-Test series, and every single Test — in fact, every first-class match New Zealand played on that tour — ended in a draw. Commentators at the time put this down to two relatively weak bowling attacks operating on very slow, unresponsive pitches. Despite the lack of results, several of the matches were closely fought: New Zealand recovered from precarious positions in the first two Tests, came close to an unlikely win in the second, and were denied victory in the third only after two dropped catches in the slips. Only the fourth Test, in Georgetown, was widely regarded as a dull affair.

The Middle Era: Building Toward Parity

Through the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s, New Zealand and West Indies continued to play regular bilateral series in all formats, alongside meeting frequently at ICC events. This period saw the balance of power gradually shift. West Indies’ all-conquering sides of the late 1970s and 1980s, built around some of the greatest fast-bowling attacks in the sport’s history, gave way over time to a New Zealand team that became increasingly competitive, particularly in home conditions and in white-ball cricket. By the time both boards reached the 2010s, the two nations were meeting as genuine equals rather than as a traditional powerhouse against an emerging side.

During these decades, tours alternated fairly regularly between the two countries, with New Zealand generally finding conditions in the Caribbean tough going for its seam-heavy attacks on flatter, slower pitches, while West Indies touring sides often struggled to adjust to New Zealand’s greener, more bowler-friendly surfaces. This back-and-forth in home conditions is part of why the overall ODI head-to-head has stayed so close over time — home advantage has mattered as much in this rivalry as raw team strength.

The introduction of T20 cricket in the mid-2000s added a third dimension to the rivalry. Both nations took to the shortest format relatively early, and matches between them in T20Is have tended to be high-scoring, fast-paced affairs featuring some of the most destructive batters either side has produced, from West Indies’ long line of big-hitting all-rounders to New Zealand players known for their power-hitting in franchise leagues around the world.

New Zealand Tour of West Indies, August 2022

Before the most recent cycle of series discussed above, the two teams also met in August 2022, when New Zealand toured the Caribbean for three ODIs and three T20Is between 10 and 21 August. West Indies were captained by Nicholas Pooran across both formats.

New Zealand won the three-match ODI series 2–1, with Mitchell Santner named player of the series for New Zealand, while Pooran was the leading run-scorer overall with 121 runs and Jason Holder the leading wicket-taker with 7. In the T20I series, also won 2–1 by New Zealand, Glenn Phillips was named player of the series, while Shamarh Brooks (105 runs) and Odean Smith (7 wickets) topped the respective West Indies charts. These matches also carried context beyond the bilateral series itself: several of the ODIs doubled as ICC Cricket World Cup Super League fixtures, with points awarded toward direct qualification for the 2023 World Cup, giving results extra weight for both sides.

World Cup Meetings

Beyond bilateral tours, New Zealand and West Indies have crossed paths repeatedly at ICC Cricket World Cups, and two of those meetings stand out as among the most memorable matches either side has played in the tournament’s history.

2015 Quarter-Final, Wellington

Played at the Wellington Regional Stadium during the World Cup that New Zealand co-hosted with Australia, this quarter-final produced one of the greatest individual innings in World Cup history. New Zealand’s Martin Guptill scored 237 not out off just over 160 balls, an innings that remains the highest individual score in Cricket World Cup history, hitting 24 fours and 11 sixes as New Zealand posted 393 for 6 after being sent in to bat. West Indies were bowled out for 250 in reply, with Jason Holder’s late hitting the only real resistance, and New Zealand advanced to a semi-final against South Africa with a 143-run win.

2019 Group Stage, Manchester

The two sides met again in the group phase of the 2019 World Cup at Old Trafford, in a match billed as pivotal to West Indies’ hopes of reaching the semi-finals. Jason Holder’s side had started the tournament well but had lost three successive games heading into this fixture, while New Zealand were one of only two unbeaten teams left in the competition at that stage. New Zealand won the match, effectively ending West Indies’ semi-final ambitions, and went on to reach the final of that tournament, where they were controversially beaten by England on boundary count after the match and the Super Over were tied.

Across the history of the two sides at World Cups, New Zealand has generally held the edge, though several of those meetings — including the 2015 quarter-final and 2019 group game — have been among the standout matches of their respective tournaments.

Recent Bilateral Series

West Indies Tour of New Zealand, November–December 2025

West Indies toured New Zealand across Tests, ODIs, and T20Is between 5 November and 22 December 2025, under the captaincy of Tom Latham in Tests and Mitchell Santner in the white-ball formats. It was a clean sweep for the home side:

• New Zealand won the three-match Test series 2–0, with Devon Conway the leading run-scorer (452 runs) and Jacob Duffy the leading wicket-taker (23 wickets).
• New Zealand won the three-match ODI series 3–0, with Conway again topping the run charts (150 runs) and Kyle Jamieson leading the bowling (7 wickets).
• New Zealand won the five-match T20I series 3–1, with Tim Robinson the leading scorer (134 runs) and Jacob Duffy again the leading wicket-taker (10 wickets).

New Zealand Tour of West Indies, July 2026

Roughly seven months later, New Zealand made the return trip to the Caribbean for a five-match ODI series played across Guyana and Barbados between 11 and 21 July 2026. Unlike the one-sided series in New Zealand, this contest went right down to the wire and produced some genuinely dramatic finishes.

• 1st ODI, Providence (11 July): West Indies won by 7 wickets with 7 balls to spare, chasing down New Zealand’s total of 267.
• 2nd ODI, Providence (13 July): New Zealand hit back, winning by 5 wickets with 104 balls remaining after restricting West Indies to 138.
• 3rd ODI, Providence (16 July): New Zealand won again, by 6 wickets with 63 balls remaining, defending a low-scoring match comfortably.
• 4th ODI, Bridgetown (19 July): In arguably the tightest match of the series, New Zealand won by just 1 wicket with 35 balls remaining, chasing 189.
• 5th ODI, Bridgetown, day/night (21 July): West Indies claimed a consolation win by 2 wickets with 15 balls remaining, chasing 269.

New Zealand won the series 3–2, taking an unassailable lead after the fourth match. The result carried extra significance for West Indies, who were ranked 10th in the ICC men’s ODI team rankings at the time and were facing the prospect of having to play World Cup qualifiers again to reach the 2027 ODI World Cup. The series also featured an emotional occasion at Kensington Oval, where both teams took part in tributes connected to Barbadian cricket great Garfield Sobers. New Zealand made a personnel change during the series, bringing in Kristian Clarke for his first game of the tour in place of Matt Fisher, while West Indies made four changes of their own late in the series, bringing in Shamar Joseph-era-style squad rotations such as Greaves, Jangoo, Forde, and Seales in place of Campbell, Hetmyer, Paul, and Pierre.

Full Timeline Table

The table below consolidates the major recorded series between New Zealand and West Indies, from their first meeting through to the most recent completed series.

Period	Tour / Event	Format(s)	Venue(s)	Result
2 – 26 Feb 1952	West Indies tour of New Zealand	Test (2 matches)	New Zealand	West Indies won 1–0
Jan – Mar 1956	West Indies tour of New Zealand	Test (4 matches)	New Zealand (incl. Eden Park)	West Indies won 3–1
1971–72	New Zealand tour of West Indies	Test (5 matches)	West Indies	Series drawn (all 5 Tests drawn)
21 Mar 2015	ICC Cricket World Cup Quarter-Final	ODI (1 match)	Wellington, New Zealand	New Zealand won by 143 runs
22 Jun 2019	ICC Cricket World Cup Group Stage	ODI (1 match)	Old Trafford, Manchester	New Zealand won
10 – 21 Aug 2022	New Zealand tour of West Indies	ODI (3) & T20I (3)	West Indies	New Zealand won ODIs 2–1 and T20Is 2–1
5 Nov – 22 Dec 2025	West Indies tour of New Zealand	Test (3), ODI (3), T20I (5)	New Zealand	NZ won Tests 2–0, ODIs 3–0, T20Is 3–1
11 – 21 Jul 2026	New Zealand tour of West Indies	ODI (5)	Providence (Guyana) & Bridgetown (Barbados)	New Zealand won the series 3–2

Note: this table highlights the landmark and most recent series rather than every single bilateral tour played between the two boards since 1952, as the sides have also met in numerous other series and multi-team tournaments not captured in full detail here.

Advanced Match-by-Match Timeline (Runs, Wickets, Overs, Venue)

Below is a ball-by-ball level breakdown of every match from the two most recent bilateral series (2025–26 in New Zealand and July 2026 in the West Indies) plus the 2022 tour and the two most famous World Cup meetings — with scores, overs, wickets, and margins.

West Indies Tour of New Zealand — T20I Series, Nov 2025

Match	Date	Venue	Team 1 Score	Team 2 Score	Result
1st T20I (D/N)	5 Nov 2025	Eden Park, Auckland	West Indies 164/6 (20 ov)	New Zealand 157/9 (20 ov)	West Indies won by 7 runs
2nd T20I (D/N)	6 Nov 2025	Eden Park, Auckland	West Indies 207/5 (20 ov)	New Zealand 204/8 (20 ov)	New Zealand won by 3 runs
3rd T20I	9 Nov 2025	Nelson	New Zealand 177/9 (20 ov)	West Indies 168 (19.5 ov)	New Zealand won by 9 runs
4th T20I	10 Nov 2025	Nelson	West Indies 38/1 (6.3 ov, rain-hit)	—	No result
5th T20I	13 Nov 2025	Dunedin	West Indies 140 (18.4 ov)	New Zealand 141/2 (15.4 ov)	New Zealand won by 8 wickets

Series result: New Zealand won 3–1 (1 no result). Top scorer: Tim Robinson (134 runs); top wicket-taker: Jacob Duffy (10 wickets).

West Indies Tour of New Zealand — ODI Series, Nov 2025

Match	Date	Venue	Team 1 Score	Team 2 Score	Result	Player of the Match
1st ODI (D/N)	16 Nov 2025	Hagley Oval, Christchurch	New Zealand 269/7 (50 ov)	West Indies 262/6 (50 ov)	New Zealand won by 7 runs	Daryl Mitchell (119 off 118)
2nd ODI (D/N)	19 Nov 2025	McLean Park, Napier	New Zealand 194 (batting, target chase in progress — WI required 2nd innings total)*	West Indies (chased down)	New Zealand won by 5 wickets	Shai Hope (109* for WI)
3rd ODI (D/N)	22 Nov 2025	Seddon Park, Hamilton	West Indies 161 (36.2 ov)	New Zealand 162/6 (30.3 ov)	New Zealand won by 4 wickets (117 balls remaining)	—

Series result: New Zealand won 3–0. Top scorer: Devon Conway (150 runs); top wicket-taker: Kyle Jamieson (7 wickets).

West Indies Tour of New Zealand — Test Series, Dec 2025

Match	Date	Venue	1st Innings	2nd Innings	Result
1st Test	2–6 Dec 2025	Hagley Oval, Christchurch	NZ 231 / WI 167	NZ 466/8d / WI 457/6 (target 531, 163.3 ov)	Match drawn (rain-affected day 1)
2nd Test	10–12 Dec 2025	Basin Reserve, Wellington	WI 205 / NZ 278/9d	WI 128 / NZ 57/1 (target 56, 10 ov)	New Zealand won by 9 wickets
3rd Test	18–22 Dec 2025	Bay Oval, Mount Maunganui	NZ 575/8d / WI 420	NZ 306/2d / WI 138 (target 462)	New Zealand won by 323 runs

Series result: New Zealand won 2–0 (1 drawn). Devon Conway made 452 runs at an average of 90.40, including a double-century and a century in the same Test (a first for a New Zealand batter); Jacob Duffy took 23 wickets, including his maiden five-wicket haul, and was named Player of the Series.

New Zealand Tour of West Indies — ODI Series, July 2026

Match	Date	Venue	Team 1 Score	Team 2 Score	Result
1st ODI (D/N)	11 Jul 2026	Providence Stadium, Guyana	New Zealand 267 (49.5 ov)	West Indies 268/3 (48.5 ov)	West Indies won by 7 wickets (7 balls remaining)
2nd ODI (D/N)	13 Jul 2026	Providence Stadium, Guyana	West Indies 138 (36 ov)	New Zealand 141/5 (32.4 ov)	New Zealand won by 5 wickets (104 balls remaining)
3rd ODI (D/N)	16 Jul 2026	Providence Stadium, Guyana	West Indies 140 (39.3 ov)	New Zealand 141/4 (39.3 ov)	New Zealand won by 6 wickets (63 balls remaining)
4th ODI	19 Jul 2026	Kensington Oval, Bridgetown	West Indies 188 (44.1 ov)	New Zealand 189/9 (44.1 ov)	New Zealand won by 1 wicket (35 balls remaining)
5th ODI (D/N)	21 Jul 2026	Kensington Oval, Bridgetown	New Zealand 268/9 (50 ov)	West Indies 269/8 (47.3 ov)	West Indies won by 2 wickets (15 balls remaining)

Series result: New Zealand won 3–2, securing an unassailable lead after the 4th ODI. The series doubled as part of West Indies’ push to avoid the 2027 ODI World Cup qualifiers.

New Zealand Tour of West Indies — ODI & T20I Series, Aug 2022

Match	Date	Venue	Team 1 Score	Team 2 Score	Result
1st T20I	Aug 2022	West Indies	New Zealand 215/5 (20 ov)	West Indies 125/9 (20 ov)	New Zealand won
2nd T20I	Aug 2022	West Indies	New Zealand 145/7 (20 ov)	West Indies 150/2 (19 ov)	West Indies won
1st ODI	Aug 2022	West Indies	New Zealand 190 (45.2 ov)	West Indies 193/5 (39 ov)	West Indies won
2nd ODI	Aug 2022	West Indies	New Zealand 212 (48.2 ov)	West Indies 161 (35.3/41 ov, DLS target)	New Zealand won
3rd ODI	Aug 2022	West Indies	New Zealand 301/8 (50 ov)	West Indies 307/5 (47.1 ov)	West Indies won

Series result: New Zealand won the ODI series 2–1 (Mitchell Santner, Player of the Series) and the T20I series 2–1 (Glenn Phillips, Player of the Series). The ODIs also carried ICC Cricket World Cup Super League points.

Marquee World Cup Meetings

Match	Date	Venue	Team 1 Score	Team 2 Score	Result
2015 CWC Quarter-Final	21 Mar 2015	Wellington Regional Stadium	New Zealand 393/6 (50 ov)	West Indies 250 (30.3 ov)	New Zealand won by 143 runs
2019 CWC Group Match	22 Jun 2019	Old Trafford, Manchester	New Zealand batted first	West Indies chased	New Zealand won

In the 2015 quarter-final, Martin Guptill’s unbeaten 237 — still the highest individual score in Cricket World Cup history — featured 24 fours and 11 sixes off just over 160 balls.

Note: a small number of ball-by-ball figures for the 2nd ODI of the November 2025 series (Napier) were not fully available in public match summaries at the time of writing; the series result and key individual contributions (Shai Hope’s 109 and New Zealand’s 5-wicket win) are confirmed.*

Head-to-Head Records by Format

Test Matches

New Zealand and West Indies have played a meaningful number of Tests against each other since 1952. The early decades were dominated by West Indies, backed by some of the greatest batting and fast-bowling talent the game has produced, including Gary Sobers, Everton Weekes, and later generations of pace bowlers. New Zealand’s fortunes improved substantially from the 1980s onward and especially in the last decade, culminating in the clean 2–0 series win at home in the 2025–26 season.

One Day Internationals

This is the format where the rivalry is most evenly balanced. Across 68 completed ODIs between the two teams, New Zealand has won 30 and West Indies 31, with 7 games producing no result. Recent series have continued that trend of competitiveness — the 2026 series in the Caribbean finished 3–2, and even the 2025 series in New Zealand, while a clean sweep on paper, included tightly fought individual matches.

T20 Internationals

New Zealand has generally had the better of West Indies in the shortest format, winning 11 of 20 completed matches to West Indies’ 7, with 2 no-results. New Zealand’s 3–1 win in the 2025 home series fits that broader pattern.

Why This Rivalry Matters

Neither New Zealand nor West Indies play as many bilateral series against each other as, say, Australia and England do, which makes each encounter carry a little more weight when it happens. For West Indies, results against New Zealand have taken on added significance in recent cycles because of ODI Super League and World Cup qualification implications — a poor run of results, as seen during the 2026 tour, can push a side that once dominated one-day cricket toward the ignominy of playing in World Cup qualifying tournaments.

For New Zealand, matches against West Indies have often provided a proving ground for young players and a source of some of the country’s proudest cricketing moments, from John Reid’s side breaking a 26-year duck for a first Test win in 1956, to Martin Guptill’s world-record World Cup innings in 2015, to a era-defining Test and white-ball clean sweep in the 2025–26 home summer.

Notable Individual Performances

A few individual performances stand out across the history of this fixture:

• Sonny Ramadhin (West Indies): Took 9 wickets for 125 runs in the very first Test between the two nations in Christchurch in 1952, setting the tone for West Indies’ dominance in that era.
• John Reid (New Zealand): Scored an aggressive 84 in the fourth Test of the 1955–56 series, laying the foundation for New Zealand’s first-ever Test victory.
• Martin Guptill (New Zealand): Struck 237 not out in the 2015 World Cup quarter-final, still the highest individual score in Cricket World Cup history.
• Devon Conway (New Zealand): Topped the run charts in both the Test and ODI legs of the 2025–26 home series against West Indies, scoring 452 Test runs and 150 ODI runs.
• Jacob Duffy (New Zealand): Was the leading wicket-taker in both the Test series (23 wickets) and the T20I series (10 wickets) during that same home summer.

Looking Ahead

With West Indies needing strong results to avoid the 2027 ODI World Cup qualifying route, and New Zealand continuing to build depth across formats, future meetings between these two sides are likely to carry real stakes rather than just historical curiosity. Given the pattern of the last few years — a home tour roughly every other season in one direction or the other — followers of both teams can expect this rivalry to continue producing tightly contested white-ball cricket, even as New Zealand has generally held the upper hand in the longer format in the most recent cycle.

Conclusion

The story of New Zealand versus West Indies in international cricket spans more than seven decades, moving from an era when West Indies’ greats like Sobers and Weekes overwhelmed a fledgling Test nation, through a period of hard-fought parity, and into a more recent stretch where New Zealand has generally had the edge, particularly in Tests and T20Is, while ODIs remain almost perfectly balanced.

Landmark moments — New Zealand’s breakthrough 1956 Test win, Guptill’s record-breaking 2015 World Cup innings, and the seesawing 2026 ODI series in the Caribbean — have given this fixture a depth that belies its lower profile compared to some of cricket’s more heavily marketed rivalries. As both teams look toward the next 50-over World Cup cycle, the head-to-head record suggests there is little to separate them, and that whatever comes next in this long-running contest is unlikely to be one-sided.