Astle made his 16th one-day international ton

New Zealand triumphed in the day-night match in Christchurch to take an unassailable 3-0 lead in the five-match series against West Indies.

The tourists looked down and out when crashing to 173-8 with 12 overs to go chasing a target of 277 to win.

But a stand of 77 in 10 overs between Ramnaresh Sarwan and Ian Bradshaw raised hopes of a sensational victory.

Finally, Bradshaw was caught in the deep attempting his fourth six, and New Zealand won by 21 runs.

Captain Stephen Fleming won his 251st cap, a record for a New Zealander.

He also won his third toss of the series and his team batted first to make 276-6, with Nathan Astle's 118 not out the crucial contribution.

West Indies were initially cruising on 127-2 in the 21st over but things then went horribly wrong.

Daniel Vettori removed Runako Morton (58) and Denesh Ramdin in the space of four balls and the late middle order collapsed to the other spinner, Jeetan Patel.

I always thought 250 was going to be competitive but it was good to get up to 276 in the end Nathan Astle Reaction: More quotes

Sarwan was running out of partners when Bradshaw stepped to the plate and amazingy the duo almost achieved the unthinkable.

Earlier, Astle had benefited from a partnership of 99 with Hamish Marshall (44), with Bradshaw taking 3-41.

He reached his 16th one-day international century in the last over of the innings and he celebrated by smashing the last three balls of Chris Gayle's over for six.

To cap a special day, he also took an astonishing leaping catch on the boundary to send back Dwayne Smith.