1st Match
New Zealand 117/9 (20 ov)
Australia 96/3 (11.3/15 ov, target: 95)
Australia won by 7 wickets (with 21 balls remaining) (D/L method)
Australia launched the inaugural T20 Tri-series with an emphatic curtain-raising victory over New Zealand at Sydney, hunting down a rain-reduced target of 95 in 11.3 overs, after their bowlers had proven too aggressive and constraining for their meek opposition.
Despite a top-order wobble, in which David Warner and the debutant D'Arcy Short fell inside the first three overs, the belligerent power of Chris Lynn and Glenn Maxwell soon assumed utter control of Australia's chase.
With a series of scything blows, particularly through the covers, Lynn set the initial tempo, en route to 44 from 33 balls, while Maxwell soon found his own range with a ramped four over the keeper's head followed by a planted front-foot six off the medium pace of Colin de Grandhomme.
Lynn picked up his solitary six of the night when he belted Mitchell Santner on the up through midwicket, but he eventually fell in pursuit of his second when, with eight runs required for victory, he scuffed a pull to backward square leg off a Trent Boult bouncer.
It barely delayed the inevitable, however. Maxwell flipped another four off his hip in Tim Southee's subsequent over, then launched the winning boundary high over the bowler's head two balls later, to finish unbeaten on 40 from 24 balls.
Australia's victory, however, was set up by the beanpole seamer, Billy Stanlake, whose cloud-snagging height, fierce pace and pinpoint accuracy justified Warner's decision to bowl first, as he wrecked New Zealand's top order with three wickets in the space of his first eight balls.
Two of those came from his first two deliveries. Steaming in for the second over of the innings, he startled Colin Munro with his trampoline bounce from just back of a good length, for Alex Carey - making his T20 debut behind the stumps - to sprint out to point to complete a steepling catch.
Then, having crossed while the ball was in the air, Martin Guptill was flummoxed by a beauty, a perfect-length seamer that burst past a tentative push to flick the top of off stump. Stanlake missed his hat-trick by a whisker, as Tom Bruce clipped an attempted yorker through the leg side for three, but Bruce didn't elude his grasp for long. In his next over, Stanlake zeroed in on his lid with a superb bouncer, and a flapped pull spiralled into the hands of Kane Richardson at fine leg.
At 3 for 16, New Zealand were shell-shocked, and their response to adversity was to go even further into that shell. Their second and final boundary of the Powerplay was a slashed cut from Ross Taylor that would have been gobbled by a second slip, and Australia soon had their fourth when tentative rearguard from Kane Williamson was sawn off by that habitual partnership-breaker Andrew Tye. The second ball of his spell was back of a length, and looped off a leading edge to David Warner in the covers.
Australia scarcely broke sweat in consolidating their dominance thereafter. The spinners Ashton Agar and Adam Zampa joined Tye in choking the middle overs, and Tom Blundell was the next to snap, galloping down the wicket to a Zampa legbreak and holing out to long-off as he was deceived in flight.
At least de Grandhomme refused to go quietly. He greeted Stanlake's return with a tremendous pick-up for four over midwicket, then gave Zampa the full treatment, pounding him for two sixes in three balls, including a huge mow into the pavilion at midwicket. Taylor, however, was far less fluent or decisive in his outlook, and his departure for 24 from 35 balls was another indication of New Zealand's muddled plans. A charge at Agar, a slash off a thin edge, and a nick to Carey who completed the stumping just to be sure.
With New Zealand going nowhere at 6 for 92, Tye returned for the death and mopped up their resistance. With his knuckle-ball a permanent and illegible threat, Santner mowed to deep midwicket, before Tim Southee and Ish Sodhi holed in in the final over of the innings - Southee at least connected for one massive six over midwicket off Richardson to show some late resistance. De Grandhomme was left high and dry on 38 not out from 24, a lone battler in a flaccid team performance.
A steady downfall during the interval caused an hour's delay and a slight recalculation of Australia's initial target of 118, but it made little difference to the destiny of the game.
Warner and Short each spanked an early boundary off Southee before then falling in the space of three balls - Short to a full-blooded pull to short midwicket and Warner to a dinky juggled catch from Bruce on the midwicket rope. But Lynn and Maxwell scarcely blinked thereafter.
Feb 7, 2018 - 2nd Match at Bellerive Oval, Hobart
England 155/9 (20 ov)
Australia 161/5 (18.3/20 ov)
Australia won by 5 wickets (with 9 balls remaining)
An outstanding allround display by Glenn Maxwell drove Australia to two wins from as many matches in the T20 triangular series, after England squandered a powerful start to their innings having been sent in by the hosts' stand-in captain David Warner.
Wickets were followed by runs to guide the Australians home for the second time in as many matches, though Maxwell was fortunate to be reprieved when 53 were still required with six wickets in hand. Lofting Adil Rashid down the ground, he appeared to be caught low down by Jason Roy, but stood his ground for the third umpire to grant Maxwell a second chance as television replays were, as they so often are, inconclusive. He made the most of it, striking a six to win the game and also reach three figures.
Whatever their thoughts about the catch, England had been wasteful in slipping from 1 for 60 after six overs to only 9 for 155, restricted largely by the spin bowling of Maxwell and Ashton Agar, plus the slower-ball variations of Kane Richardson and AJ Tye. Together they counterbalanced an expensive outing for Billy Stanlake, who did not adjust to a Bellerive Oval surface that offered less encouragement for speed than the SCG had done.
Australia's pursuit of the target was unbalanced early when David Willey accounted for Warner and Chris Lynn in the space of three balls, but Maxwell mounted game aware stands with D'Arcy Short and then Travis Head to secure victory. Maxwell's contribution was his second in as many matches, following a summer in which he had spent far more time outside the Australian set-up than in it.
Willey's use of the new ball had given England a chance, but Rashid was by a distance the best of England's bowlers, flighting the ball teasingly and spinning it both ways to deceive more than one Australian batsman. The turn extracted from the Hobart pitch also raised the question about whether Liam Dawson's slow left-arm might have been useful.
Warner made his intentions known from the first ball of the pursuit, flat-batting Willey down the ground, but to the second he arrowed a pull shot straight at deep square leg. Lynn, having spoken so freely about quitting the long form of the game, showed himself incapable of dealing with the moving ball, uncertain when jamming down on Willey's first inswinger then clueless when bowled off his pads by the second.
These early incisions gave England a chance, but Short and Maxwell were not unduly concerned by the required run rate and so were able to play with relative comfort in their distinctive styles. Short crashed the biggest six of the night, a roasting pull shot off Willey, while Maxwell found multiple ways to and over the boundary in manners both orthodox and Maxwellian. The pair seemed capable of driving Australia all the way to their target, but Rashid intervened with an exceptional, one-handed return catch to intercept a Short drive drilled straight back at the leg spinner.
Stoinis struggled to pick Rashid's variations early in his innings and then miscued an attempt to muscle Mark Wood down the ground, but the required rate was barely seven an over and Maxwell was in apparent control. His misjudgment of Rashid's flight should have resulted in his dismissal, but the limitations of television replays offered Maxwell the breathing room he needed to carry the Australians home with assistance from a composed Alex Carey. It was comfortable enough for Maxwell to monopolise the strike at the end and so go onto his second T20I hundred.
Following an opening victory over New Zealand in Sydney on Saturday, Australia made one change to their XI, recalling Head in the wake of his Big Bash League heroics for Adelaide Strikers in the place of the wrist spinner Adam Zampa. England were able to include all of Alex Hales, Roy and Chris Jordan after injury concerns although Liam Plunkett remained sidelined.
A slower Hobart surface did not provide Stanlake the assistance he had enjoyed in Sydney, and his speed and length provided welcome pace on the ball for Hales and Dawid Malan after Roy had misjudged an early slower ball from Richardson and popped a catch to cover. England skated to 1 for 60 at the end of the Powerplay, with Stanlake suffering most of the punishment.
However the game was changed by the introduction of the canny Agar, who drew a closed bat face and a return catch from Hales with his first ball - completing the catch despite being unsighted due to the non-striker Malan. Head's first over cost an unsightly 14 and forced Warner to try Maxwell instead, a decision that brought welcome dividends when an off break held back slightly brought a skier from Eoin Morgan and a comfortable catch for Australia's captain.
Malan, in contrast to his persevering efforts in the Tests, was playing a brilliant attacking innings, finding the cover boundary with particular relish, but wickets were starting to fall regularly and the run rate began to slow. Jos Buttler punched a Stoinis slower ball to mid off, Billings presented Agar with another front edge caught and bowled when he returned to the attack, and Malan's innings was ended when he failed to clear deep square leg. When Willey ran down the pitch to Maxwell and failed to repeat the blows than had taken 34 from a Nathan Lyon over in England's Canberra warm-up match, Australia were very much in control.
Rashid and Curran offered high catches to maintain the slide, and only a fruitful heave at Tye by Jordan eked England beyond 150. Thanks largely to Maxwell, and more than a little help from television footage, it was not to be enough.
3rd Match
England 137-7
Australia 138-3.
Australia win by seven wickets
They were outgunned in the ODI series, but Australia put England in the shade for the second consecutive Twenty20. In front of 42,691 fans here, the Australian international summer was closed in style with a dominant seven-wicket win, with 33 balls to spare. Two wins against England and one against New Zealand means Australia qualify for the final of the Trans-Tasman Tri-Series in Auckland on 21 February.
The perfect balance of a side made up of players fresh out of the Big Bash League and a better appreciation of the dimensions of a vast outfield gave the hosts an edge they did not let slip. England’s total of 137 for seven on a ground where the average winning score batting first is 160 was made to look severely inadequate.
Eoin Morgan sat out with a groin strain, meaning Jos Buttler was captain for the sixth time in his career. That he ended with England’s top score owed more to duty than his usual pyrotechnics. His 43 was the only innings of note and at 49 balls ranked as the slowest of his 20 knocks of 25-plus in the format. After losing the toss, he arrived at the crease at the end of the fourth over, his team floundering on 34 for three and, although he batted to the end, he was unable to conjure a big finish. Despite little help around him, Buttler felt he was most to blame.
“After losing three early poles, I felt the best way was to take some balls and back myself at the end to really kick on,” he said. “I struggled. I was trying hard and it didn’t manage to work. I tried to be better than a run-a-ball with about five overs to go and then to kick on. That didn’t happen for me. I have to improve and look at where I went wrong. I just never quite got going.”
Alex Hales’s 50th T20 international lasted 11 balls as he was caught smartly by Aaron Finch, who had to run back from mid-on to catch the ball over his right shoulder at the second attempt. Jason Roy gave wicketkeeper Alex Carey catching practice before Dawid Malan was magnificently run out by a parallel-to-the-ground David Warner.
A shot in the arm from Sam Billings – his 29 off 23 balls the only innings in the top six to go better than a run-a-ball – gave the visitors a sniff of a competitive total. Buttler batted through to the end, caught by Ashton Agar as he looked to strike a six down the ground, giving Kane Richardson three for 33.
For the seventh time in seven games, Australia’s attack dog David Warner was neutered, this time edging David Willey through to the keeper. In those white-ball innings against England since the turn of the year, Warner has returned four single-figure scores.
Chris Lynn, D’Arcy Short and Glenn Maxwell picked up the slack. With the regular opener Aaron Finch coming back into the side at No 5, they had too much power for an England line-up not used to flagging behind.
Lynn’s 31 off 19 balls took Australia to 51 for two in the sixth over, taking the number of runs required below balls remaining. Short’s impressive summer continued with a measured 36 not out, allowing Maxwell to bring the decadence.
A reverse sweep off the second ball of the 10th over, bowled by Rashid, took Maxwell to 1,000 T20i runs. He marked the occasion with three more boundaries – a four, six and another four – off consecutive balls. When he departed for 39 via a top edge to give Chris Jordan his second wicket, he was replaced by Finch who sealed a dominant performance with back-to-back sixes.
England now move on to New Zealand, who they will play in Wellington on Tuesday. Both sides will be searching for their first win of the series.
4th Match
New Zealand 196/5 (20 ov)
England 184/9 (20 ov)
New Zealand won by 12 runs
England’s Trans-Tasman tri-series hopes are all but over after a 12-run defeat by New Zealand. Three successive, emphatic losses mean they need Australia to beat the Black Caps in Auckland on Friday and buck up their ideas when these two meet again on Sunday to have any hope of reaching the final on 21 February.
Considering 163 is the highest successful chase at this stadium, England’s target of 197 was beyond them once Jason Roy was dismissed for his fifth single-figure T20i score in a row and Alex Hales was nipped in the bud for a blistering 47 from 23 balls. Jos Buttler, skippering for a second match as Eoin Morgan continues to recover from a groin strain, was caught in the deep as the first of two wickets for the leg-spinner Ish Sodhi.
That made it 109-4, with eight overs to go and 88 remaining on the table. A third 50 in four matches for Dawid Malan (59) and some proper clouts from David Willey gave the locals something to stick around for. When Willey was run out failing to scamper a bye off the final ball of the 19th – a boneheaded play considering he needed to be on strike for the final over – getting 25 from the last six balls was always beyond Adil Rashid and the No 11 Mark Wood.
Any fears about the drop-in pitch at the Westpac Stadium, which sported a large bare patch in the middle, were allayed by the host’s 196 for five. A steady Power Play of 50-1 suggested a degree of ebb and flow after Buttler elected to bowl first, so when Martin Guptill and Kane Williamson could only add 10 off the next two overs, Buttler would have felt he had the match under control.
However, Guptill and Williamson were then invited to click through the gears by England’s attack: both passing 50 – off 31 and 34 balls, respectively – with a six and then celebrating with a six off the next ball. As opener, the first six overs offered Guptill the chance to free his arms, before settling into what looked to be his second international T20 century. Instead, he was removed on 65, lazily working a leg-side full toss from Rashid to the returning Liam Plunkett at short-fine leg. Colin de Grandhomme went the very next ball to a stunning catch by Chris Jordan at long-off, who hung in the air and plucked a sure six out of the night sky.
Williamson, though, was the one that got away. A needless opening single should have been the end of him: Wood with a sterling effort to gather off his own bowling, but the throw that followed missed the non-striker’s stumps with the hosts’ captain nowhere in sight. Pace off the ball kept him in check but, for some reason, England abandoned the tactic and insisted on hitting him with pace at the end of his innings.
When they eventually saw the back of him at the end of the 18th over, yorked by Jordan for 72 (his first half-century in 10 innings), the platform had been set for the debutants Mark Chapman and Tim Seifert to share four sixes. Chapman, now a dual international, became the first player born in Hong Kong to play for a full member side since Dermot Reeve’s England debut in May 1991. The 23-year-old Chapman has represented Hong Kong in two ODIs and 19 T20is.
It was particularly chastening for Wood, whose four overs and extra pace allowed 51 runs. It was a spell that added further sincerity to one of the aims for his upcoming IPL stint with Chennai Super Kings – to develop a proper slower ball. Trailblazers in the 50-over format, over the last week England have played the shortest form as if they have much to learn.
5th Match
New Zealand 243/6 (20 ov)
Australia 245/5 (18.5/20 ov)
Australia won by 5 wickets (with 7 balls remaining)
Eden Park was transformed into a T20 batting paradise as Australia pulled off a world-record run chase in Auckland, reducing Martin Guptill's 49-ball hundred - and a host of other records - to a footnote. D'Arcy Short and David Warner hammered aggressive fifties to set the tone of the reply and Australia's middle order kept the pedal to the metal at a stage where New Zealand had stuttered to seal victory with more than an over to spare.
The stands were peppered for 32 sixes - equalling the T20I record - as the odd-shaped boundaries at Eden Park produced a lop-sided match in which batsman were able to swing with impunity and bowling became an exercise in damage limitation. No team had successfully chased as many in all T20 cricket.
New Zealand were left to rue a passage at the back end of their innings when they didn't score a boundary for 18 balls, but the point at which the game tipped decisively came in the 17th over of the chase. Australia needed 42 from 24 but Ben Wheeler, in the side after an injury to Mitchell Santner, delivered a no-ball that Aaron Finch struck for six, followed by a four and another high full toss.
Wheeler was removed from the attack, the equation had become 29 from 23, and although his replacement, Trent Boult, had Short caught behind top-edging a pull, another four and a six from Finch left Australia needing less than a run a ball. Finch's unbeaten 36 off 14 at No. 5 provided a muscular contrast with the way New Zealand had faltered and it was probably apt that he finished things off with the final six of a gluttonous encounter.
Australia had ransacked their way to victory, leaving Guptill in the shade despite several personal milestones. Their fourth win from four in the tri-series left the home fans muttering quietly to themselves but would have been cheered down in Hamilton, as it helped keep England in with a chance of pipping a shell-shocked New Zealand to a place in the final.
Guptill became the leading run-scorer in all T20 internationals, surpassing Brendon McCullum, while also striking the fastest hundred by a New Zealander (one delivery quicker than McCullum) and moving up above his former team-mate to second on the all-time six-hitting list, too. But from Guptill's dismissal in the 17th over, New Zealand stumbled. Kane Richardson picked up two wickets as New Zealand lost 4 for 12 and it required a couple more sixes from Ross Taylor - one of which was adroitly held by a fan in the crowd wearing a sponsor's shirt - to ensure the innings didn't dribble to a conclusion.
This was a night to make bowlers question their life choices. AJ Tye conceded 64 from his four overs, soothed a modicum by two wickets, but he could probably spare some sympathy for New Zealand's Wheeler, who was left with 0 for 64 from just 3.1. Perversely, the most economical bowler on either side - Ashton Agar - did not deliver his full quota.
Having been on the receiving end of untrammelled aggression from Guptill and Colin Munro, who struck six sixes of his own in making 76, Australia's openers took the Spinal Tap route and turned the amps up to 11. Short's first three boundaries all came off the edge of the bat - the first flying all the way over the rope at third man - and he might have been caught on 18 gloving a pull at Tim Southee, but Tim Seifert could not hold on one-handed down the leg side.
Warner, whose run of poor form in white-ball cricket had extended 10 innings without a fifty, had 12 off seven balls when he twice latched on to Wheeler for leg-side sixes. Five wides over the keeper (among 20 extras down by the New Zealand attack) turned the fifth into a 22-run over, and Warner cleared the ropes two more times in the next as Australia equalled the Powerplay record of 91 in T20 internationals.
A 20-ball fifty from Warner had clearly shaken New Zealand's resolve, though he fell shortly after missing an attempted pull at Ish Sodhi's googly. Chris Lynn struck one towering blow before being caught by Guptill - who had dropped him two overs before - but Short crashed two sixes and a four from his next four legitimate balls to keep Australia on track.
Australia raised their 150 in the 12th over, just as New Zealand had. Short had not looked as imperious as Guptill but he was striking the ball ever-more cleanly; Glenn Maxwell, meanwhile, continued the theme of the night by hitting his second ball for six over long-on as New Zealand's late-innings lull began to look ever-more costly. Something had to give and it turned out to be Wheeler.
Having chosen to bat, and knowing that victory would make their final game against England an irrelevance, New Zealand set about the Australia attack with calculated fury. In the first match of the tri-series, New Zealand had limped to 117 for 9 at the SCG; back on home soil, they crossed that mark in the 11th over.
Guptill flicked his first delivery for four and cleared the ropes for the first time in the second over, smoking Billy Stanlake down the ground. Munro took a little longer to find the boundary - two balls - and then, from a steady start, began to stage an exhibition of six-upmanship with his opening partner.
Only one over in the Powerplay went for less than 10, as New Zealand piled up 67 without loss. Munro climbed into Agar with sixes in the seventh and ninth overs, bringing him up to parity with Guptill. It was the latter who reached his half-century first, from 30 balls, when he munched Short's left-arm wrist spin - making its first appearance at international level - over long-on; Munro then got there in identical fashion, three balls faster, later in the same over.
The 12th threatened to become a Tye-breaker when Munro hit the first three balls for six, but the bowler held his nerve to instead break the stand via a mistimed blow to long-on. Guptill maintained the tempo, clearing the ropes for the ninth time to bring up his hundred with 28 balls still remaining in the innings, but he was also removed by Tye as New Zealand lost power at a crucial juncture. Australia in with a chance? You'd better Adam and Eve it.
6th Match
New Zealand 192-4, England 194-7; England win by two runs
Black Caps seal final against Australia after passing 174 runs
A match that summed up England’s disastrous Trans-Tasman tri-series saw victory sealed off the final ball but the game effectively lost 11 deliveries earlier. Needing to beat New Zealand by 20 runs to qualify for the tri-series final, their two-run win, as thrilling as it might have been in any other context, was thoroughly underwhelming. New Zealand will now face Australia in Wednesday’s final in Auckland.
The team analyst crunched the numbers yesterday and, after double-checking with the bods at Loughborough overnight, confirmed to Eoin Morgan that victory by around 20 runs – or achieving a target with two or three overs to spare – would see them go through. At the halfway stage, having posted 194 for seven, England had their answer – they needed to keep the Black Caps to 174 or below.
Just as the calculator was put away, New Zealand opener Colin Munro brought out the big guns, launching an astonishing attack on some woeful bowling with 52 off his first 18 balls. He was eventually seen off in Adil Rashid’s first over, caught backward square leg by David Willey, at the start of an effective counter-attack by spin.
Rashid and Liam Dawson stitched seven overs together, sharing 15 dot balls and conceding just the one boundary between them to slow New Zealand from 77-0 after the power play to 108 for two after 13 overs. The 14th over went for 18, however, as Dawson, whose left-arm spin had conceded just nine and nabbed the wicket of Kane Williamson in his first three overs, was taken apart by Martin Guptill and Mark Chapman.
Guptill, who had played possum while Munro was teeing off, came to the fore. While he was unable to see New Zealand over the line, his 64 from 47 got them within 11 of qualification with three and a half overs left. His dismissal, clean bowled while trying to find a third consecutive six, gave Dawid Malan his maiden international wicket. A single to mid-on from Chapman off the first ball of the 19th over ticked the score over to the magic 175 mark.
Defending 12 off the final over, Tom Curran kept New Zealand to nine for a redundant win. England rested players for this series at the end of a gruelling tour, but considering the pride and resources placed on white-ball cricket, this has been a chastening fortnight.
After being put in, Jason Roy opened the team’s scoring with a six and took the visitors to 22-0 after two overs, but some smart slower balls which accounted for Alex Hales and Roy – both caught down the ground off Tim Southee and Trent Boult respectively – slowed up to 41-2 after six overs.Morgan’s return to form with 80 off 46 balls was at least welcome for the man himself – a first half-century of this white-ball tour and his second highest score in international Twenty20. In the 12th over, Morgan was caught off a no-ball, an above waist full-toss from Ish Sodhi, on 36.
Malan then smashed the free hit over the stands at deep midwicket for his fifth six, taking him to his half-century from 32 balls. In meant he became the first man in international T20 to score four half-centuries in his first five matches. He fell four balls later, hitting to the same area, this time off Colin de Grandhomme, for 53.
Morgan continued but at the other end Jos Buttler was stumped off a picture-perfect leg-spinner from Sodhi to finish with a series aggregate of 65 runs, having faced a total of 65 balls across his four innings. Sam Billings’ attempts to get cute saw him dab a ball into his stumps. And so it was down to the England captain to lead a late charge, scoring 34 off his final 12 balls. Though he only faced four of the last 12 deliveries, cameos from Willey, Dawson, and a last-ball six from Jordan set a target of 195.
England will travel on to Auckland anyway, though now for a period of rest before the ODI series begins next week. Some players are staying on, others finally returning home. You would not blame the former for being jealous of the latter.
Final
New Zealand 150/9 (20 ov)
Australia 121/3 (14.4 ov, target: 103)
Australia won by 19 runs (D/L method)
After the boom at Eden Park, swiftly came the bust. Five days on from Australia's world-record T20 chase, New Zealand opted to set a target again; this time, after an excellent bowling display on a less-frisky surface, the requirement over 120 balls was almost 100 runs fewer. D'Arcy Short capped an excellent debut series by crunching his second T20I fifty and the match descended into a hit'n'gurgle as the rain swept in for a second time.
That Australia did not have to resort to the spectacular with the bat was down to a canny display with the ball. Where 32 sixes had streaked the Auckland skies when these two teams met in the group, the tally barely managed double-figures in the final. Short dismissively swatted three early on to ease Australia on to the front foot as they hunted down a fifth successive win that gave them the trophy as well as taking them second in the ICC rankings - a remarkable turnaround, given they started the month languishing at No. 7.
The T20 tri-series is a new-ish innovation but defeat for New Zealand followed a familiar script. In a variety of multi-team tournaments, including most recently at the 2015 World Cup, Australia have held the whip hand over their Trans-Tasman neighbours: their record now 12 wins in a row in finals going back to 1981.
Despite a flinty innings from Ross Taylor, New Zealand's decision to bat first abruptly back-fired. Striving for a suitably stratospheric score to challenge a powerful Australia line-up, they lost wickets throughout the innings - only two partnerships, the first and the ninth, managed more than 18 runs. Kane Williamson had perhaps been hoping a used pitch would break up further for his spinners to exploit, but New Zealand's batting cracked first, with Ashton Agar particularly impressive in taking career-best figures.
David Warner successfully muzzled the New Zealand innings with 16 bowling changes and then helped establish a base for the chase, Australia's openers combining for 72 in eight overs. Short was the more aggressive, striking two rapier straight drives and then hoisting Trent Boult for the first six in the fifth over; he cleared the ropes twice more in the next, off Tim Southee, as Australia finished the Powerplay comfortably set on 55 without loss.
A short rain delay allowed New Zealand to regroup and although they removed Short after he had completed a 28-ball fifty, it was near-impossible to build pressure in the field. Warner was bowled by Ish Sodhi and Agar, promoted to No. 3, fell to a stumping against fellow left-armer Mitchell Santner; had a wild slog from Glenn Maxwell gone to hand a couple of balls later, New Zealand might have had some leverage.
Even as the game slipped away, their commitment in the field remained impressive. Williamson almost ran out Aaron Finch with an elastic, sliding pick-up-and-throw from mid-off, while Mark Chapman performed a relay catch on the rope to deny Finch six after he had latched on to a Santner no-ball.
Maxwell and Finch had taken Australia within range, needing just 30 from 32 balls, when a second, heavier shower swept through. With Duckworth-Lewis-Stern looming in the gloaming, most of the crowd had disappeared disappointed into the night when the umpires finally decided at around 10.40pm that no further play would be possible.
It was always going to be a struggle to match the fireworks of Friday but New Zealand did get off to a rapid start through Martin Guptill and Colin Munro once again. A frenetic opening featured several boundaries, although timing the ball on a worn surface looked a little harder, and New Zealand had 48 on the board inside five overs when Billy Stanlake made the breakthrough, Guptill toe-ending a blow down the ground straight to Warner at mid-off.
Munro was next to go, mistiming another big shot to the edge of the ring, and Australia began to make regular inroads. Williamson and Chapman managed a boundary apiece before falling in the space of three balls to Agar, who was the only bowler to deliver consecutive overs. Agar also removed the powerful Colin De Grandhomme, who was tempted to hit across the line to the longer boundary, and when Santner fell first ball pulling at AJ Tye, New Zealand had lost 6 for 45.
With Warner changing things up relentlessly, Australia presented a moving target. Tim Seifert was flummoxed by a Marcus Stoinis yorker and Southee under-clubbed another boundary catch, but Sodhi at least managed to hang around alongside Taylor for a few overs to give the scorecard some respectability. New Zealand managed to save face, but saving the match was beyond them.
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