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Dissatisfied with information they received during the final stages of the decisive fifth Cable & Wireless One-Day International, New Zealand have filed a formal complaint to vent their feelings.

The confusion surfaced over the number of overs fast bowler Paul Hitchcock had towards the end of the tense match on Sunday at the Arnos Vale Playing Field which West Indies won by four wickets off the final ball to clinch the series 3-1.

The 'Black Caps' captain, Stephen Fleming, originally wanted Hitchcock to bowl the final over, but had to resort to Daryl Tuffey after it was belatedly discovered the count on Hitchcock's tally of overs was not accurate.

It has cost us the match and the series. Both umpires pretty much admitted that they made a mistake, a dejected Fleming said. The match referee agrees with me.

According to Fleming, the on-field umpires told him Hitchcock had three overs remaining to complete his full quota of ten at the start of the 42nd over in which he struck a vital blow by removing West Indies skipper Carl Hooper.

The New Zealand captain said the umpires told him about two or three overs later Hitchcock had only one over remaining.

On at least four occasions, Fleming said he asked for a clarification on the number of overs bowled by Hitchcock and it became evident the information given by the official scorers and also posted on the scoreboard on the ground was not corresponding with information by scorers in the television and radio commentary booths.

We had a meeting with the umpires in terms of our disgust at their performance. The match referee will deal with it accordingly and I think he shares the same view, Fleming said.

The bottom-line is that it has hurt us and it has left more of a sad taste than what's already there.

Fleming said the defeat, the third for New Zealand in the five-match series in which the opening game was abandoned because of rain, had left them devastated.

Amidst all the uncertainty, Fleming was asked if he considered stopping play to get the accurate position from the match referee.

The umpires keep bowling lists, which they just tick off. It's just a case of going up and getting that information, he said

The information that we got was that Hitchcock had three (overs) to bowl, which was fine. He bowled his eighth - two to go - and then they came and said, no, he's got one.

Clarification came somewhere perhaps down the road that he only had one to go. You can't argue with that on the spot.

With Hitchcock not at New Zealand's disposal, Fleming turned to Tuffey, a relatively inexperienced fast bowler who turned 24 last Tuesday.

His control was sadly lacking and West Indies knocked off the 16 runs they needed from the final six balls.

Hitchcock is the perfect finisher, but the information was such that we had to turn to Tuffey. He is the other man who is trained to do this job, Fleming said.

We could have gone to Scottie Styris, but the medium-pacers we have found on these wickets are not ideal to finish the innings off.

West Indies skipper Carl Hooper wasn't too concerned over New Zealand's problems.

I suppose at the end of the day you can look back at a lot of `ifs' and `buts'. Tuffey had to bowl the last over and Chanderpaul played well, Hooper said.

He, however, recognises that scoreboards like the one at Arnos Vale can pose problems at times.

It's not an electronic scoreboard, so as a result, you probably might miss an over short from a bowler or something like that, he said.

But, I think the way to do it is to keep in touch with the umpires just find out how many overs have gone, how many are left and which particular bowler. That is the way I do it.

© The Barbados Nation