New Zealand Women’s continued their ruthless run and handed Windies Women their fourth consecutive loss of the tour on Wednesday. In the first T20I, the hosts sealed an eight-run win to take a 1-0 lead at the Bay Oval after sweeping the ODI series 3-0. Set 168, Windies could manage just 159 for 6 wickets to continue their poor run.

In the chase, Merissa Aguilleira made things tough for her team as she struggled her way to 5 off 14. Despite that, Windies got off to a promising start as Hayley Matthews attacked early on. By the end of the Powerplay, Windies had 42 on the board and looked set to give New Zealand a tough time.

Matthews, however, failed to convert her start into a big score as she fell in the ninth over with 60 on the board. One wicket was all New Zealand needed to hammer the door open. Stafanie Taylor, who cracked a fifty, kept losing partners and couldn't inject the much-needed momentum in the chase.

Leigh Kasperek picked up three wickets while Devine made up for the failure with the bat with two wickets. The two teams will now meet in the second T20I of the five-match series on March 16.

Brief scores: New Zealand 167/6 in 20 overs (Katey Martin 54, Suzie Bates 49; Deandra Dottin 2-23) beat Windies 159/6 in 20 overs (Hayley Matthews 53, Stafanie Taylor 51*; Leigh Kasperek 3-35) by eight runs.