Australia beat New Zealand by six wickets in the first T20 match at Wellington tonight in a high scoring game. Tim David (31 not out from 10 balls) smashed a boundary on the last ball of the innings to gave his team the win.
The Black Caps won the toss and elected to bat first, and made 3/215 from their 20 overs thanks to Devon Conway (63 from 46) and Rachin Ravindra (68 from 35 including five sixes). Aussie captain Mitchell Marsh led the run chase with an unbeaten 72 from 44 balls, including seven sixes, and was named player of the match.
There were expensive bowling from both sides: Pat Cummins and Adam Zampa for Australia, Tim Southee and Adam Milne for NZ.
The hosts were without regular captain Kane Williamson (parental leave) and the injured trio of influential middle-order batter Daryl Mitchell (foot), seamer Matt Henry (hip) and opener/wicketkeeper Tim Seifert (torn abductor).
On Friday, Australia defeated New Zealand by 72 runs in Auckland. Travis Head and Mitchell Marsh gave their team a blistering start, reaching 100 runs in the 9th over, but NZ bowlers fought back, triggering a batting collapse of 8/70 to dismiss Australia for 174 in 19.5 overs. NZ struggled in their run chase (not helped by the absence of Devon Conway, who was hit on the thumb while keeping the wicket) and were bowled out for 102 in 17 overs. Only Glenn Phillips put up decent resistance with 42.
Australia has achieved a 3-0 clean sweep of Twenty20 series against New Zealand, beating the home side by 27 runs (DLS method) in a rain affected game 3 in Auckland this afternoon. Sent in to bat, Australiaās innings was interrupted by rain three times, before ending on 4/118 off 10.4 overs. The Black Caps dropped three catches which didnāt help.
New Zealand was set the target of 126 from 10 overs, but could only manage 3/98 in the end.
Matthew Short was named player of the match for scoring 27 runs and taking 1/33. Mitchell Marsh was named player of the series. Australia retained the Chappell-Hadlee Trophy.
It was changed to include T20I this year as a way of increasing āexposure and profileā, but probably because they just donāt play enough ODIs against each other any more.
Thereās probably only a few of the less prestigious ones that you could do that with - for instance, you wouldnāt make The Ashes or even the Border-Gavaskar Trophy a multi format one.
Not really a fan of the idea of introducing more trophies for the sake of it though.
Iām pretty happy with it the way it is, maybe a make a few of the less regular/prestigious ones a multi format one like you said and leave it at that i think.
I almost think the best way to keep ODI cricket somewhat relevant is to actually only play it during the World Cup and Champions Trophy where the games still have some meaning and prestige- with bilateral series just have test matches and T20s as these tend to be holding attendances and interest better.
A pity England let this match slip away after another poor batting performance yesterday. A turner, yes, but you expect to be tested in test cricket. But inept batting performances by touring sides in India are a dime-a-dozen, with Australia being a frequent offender too.
Batters have no clue when the conditions heavily favour the bowlers, whether spin or seam, and I think T20 is almost certainly to blame.
India won the test match by five wickets, despite England spinner Shoaib Bashir grabbing three quick scalps.
With the win, India also took an unassailable 3-1 lead in the five-test series. According to text commentary on ESPNCricinfo, it is Englandās first series loss since Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum came together as captain and coach.
Australia have defeated New Zealand by 172 runs in the first test in Wellington today, to retain the Trans-Tasman trophy. The Aussies wrapped up the Blackcapsā second innings just before lunch, taking the last seven wickets for 83 runs. Nathan Lyon grabbed 6 for 65.
The win was set up on day two when player of the match Cameron Green scored a career-best 174 not out, and put on 116 with Josh Hazlewood, Australiaās highest 10th wicket partnership against NZ. Australia then bowled out the home side for 179 on the same day. Although NZ fought back by dismissing Australia for 164 (part time spinner Glenn Phillips took 5/45), the winning target of 369 was just too far.
A little disappointing how quickly the Kiwis faded today. With Ravindra and Mitchell there you thought they could at least make a bit of a stand. It all unravelled pretty quickly once Ravindra went out.
Fair play to Lyon for bowling super well in the fourth innings, but youāre right, it was Greenās knock that was the difference in this match.
āWhat we had in the FTP as a wholeā¦ itās a real challenge to deliver all of it. Weāve got almost too much cricket for the amount of venues that weāve got,ā Cricket Ireland high performance director Richard Holdsworth told ESPNcricinfo.
āCosts of putting on games in Ireland have gone up considerably since Covid. Hotel prices, putting up temporary infrastructure for grounds have gone up astronomically.ā
Holdsworth said the Australia white-ball series would not be shifted to England, where Ireland have previously hosted matches in Chelmsford and Bristol. After this year, Australia are not set to tour the UK until the 2027 Ashes.
Didnāt see much of that innings but it looks like the same old story, little application shown by the batting side in the face of some good bowling. The same happened in India yesterday.