Australia win by 64 runs
A comeback win in the series for Australia, who take the score to 2-1 with two to play. The series stays alive.
A double-header loss for New Zealand, whose women’s team got smashed by England earlier today.
That’s a big loss in this match, they were really nowhere near it from the point when Williamson and Guptill were both dismissed early. It was Maxwell’s innings that took it away from New Zealand, when Australia were on track for a decent score but it became an imposing one. The ability to flip that switch and score 70 from 30 balls is a precious one.
From there, the chase was always a tall order for New Zealand. Meredith bowled with serious pace and accuracy to hamper them early, then Agar came back from conceding 12 from his first over, then took 6 for 18 from that point on.
Given the difficulty for most players in timing shots on this surface, you would guess that NZ would be keen to bat first in the remaining two matches after choosing not to today.
Both of those games will be played at the same venue in Wellington, so we’ll see how the surface holds up if indeed the same pitch is used. The fourth match is on Friday at 5pm Aus eastern daylight, and the final match is on Sunday from 2pm.
We’ll be here for both. Till then.
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17.1 overs: New Zealand 144 all out (Boult 0) Poor old Trent Boult doesn’t get to face a ball.
WICKET! Sodhi c & b K. Richardson 1 (2), NZ all out 144
Kane Richardson finishes it off, bowls a ball going away from the right-handed Sodhi who tries to fetch it to leg, and only sends it a mile up in the air and back down again. Richardson catches it just off the pitch to the leg side.
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17th over: New Zealand 144-9 (Sodhi 1) That is the first six-wicket haul for an Australian in T20 Internationals. Agar with the national record figures of 6 for 30. Three wickets in his second over, one in his third, two in his fourth, after being whacked around in his first.
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WICKET! Jamieson lbw Agar 11 (9), NZ 138-9
Six wickets for Agar, as Jamieson steps across to try ramping, misses, and gets hit in front of middle. He reviews to try to deny Agar that wicket but DRS says it’s clipping the bails, even with Jamieson’s height.
WICKET! Chapman c Zampa b Agar 18 (10), NZ 138-8
Chapman is able to dirty up Agar’s figures just a little by nailing a slog-sweep, the longest hit of the night at 94 metres, way up into the stands. But then he improves Agar’s figures by trying it again and being caught. A faster ball getting through the shot before he’s finished it, lobbing up off glove or bat-shoulder to short fine leg, where Zampa nearly misses it but dives away as the wind picks up the ball, and just gets it as a fingertipper above the turf. Great snare.
16th over: New Zealand 132-7 (Chapman 12, Jamieson 6) Now it’s Finch’s turn to drop one, down at long-on this time. Comes around as Jamieson clubs it, is under the ball, but fumbles it over the rope for four. Jhye Richardson has to wear another one as Chapman smacks him straight for four more. Then down the wicket to a slower ball and drives two more over the bowler’s head, the ball pitching and stopping and allowing the second run. Yorker last ball and Chapman keeps strike, but he needs 77 from 24 balls to win it.
15th over: New Zealand 120-7 (Chapman 5, Jamieson 1) Should have been five wickets in eight balls! Big top edge from Chapman, sweeping, and Riley Meredith at deep square leg hashes it up. Doesn’t read the arc as he comes around the boundary, stops running towards the ball, then realises it won’t land near him and takes off again, too late. Puts in a dive but doesn’t even get hands to it in the end. Agar’s five-for goes through his fingers. NZ only get three runs from his over.
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WICKET! Southee c Maxwell b Agar 5 (6), NZ 116-7
That’s four wickets in seven balls for Agar! First ball of his over, Southee tries to clear long-off and doesn’t. Simple.
14th over: New Zealand 116-6 (Chapman 2, Southee 5) Meredith finishes his night’s work with 2 for 24, getting in his last over to conceded five runs.
93 in 36 required now.
13th over: New Zealand 111-6 (Chapman 1, Southee 1) That’s the game. They need 98 from 42 balls, which would be possible with two good hitters up and firing, but unlikely with spare player Chapman partnered with Southee, even with the latter’s sporadic six-hitting sprees in Test cricket.
WICKET! Neesham c Wade b Agar 0 (1), NZ 109-6
First ball, third ball, fifth ball! Ish Sodhi got three an over last time out, Agar has done it here today. Neesham hit three sixes to start his innings last time, he’s out first ball today. He has a big drive outside off stump, the left-hander, and gets a little edge through to Wade. He’s not sure if he hit it, talks to his partner on the way off, but isn’t confident enough to review.
WICKET! Conway c Stoinis b Agar 38 (27), NZ 109-5
And that makes it harder still. The main man, Conway, has gone to the slog-sweep as well. This time caught at deep square leg, the left-hander coming across the ball, but again it was the length that undid him, he looked like he expected it to land a bit fuller than it did.
WICKET! Phllips c K. Richardson b Agar 13 (10), NZ 109-4
That makes it harder. Boundaries needed, Agar gets a ball to dip in towards the earth, and Phillips tries to slog-sweep but hits it far too straight, caught at long-on.
12th over: New Zealand 109-3 (Conway 38, Phillips 13) Conway takes the birthright of the left-hander – the ball angled across that he can edge for four. It works a lot more in your favour in short-form cricket than in long. The batting pair start hitting the gaps facing Kane Richardson, getting back for twos. They take 10 from the over and now need 100 from 48. So the equation isn’t out of hand yet for New Zealand, if they get a couple of big overs then they’re in the mix.
11th over: New Zealand 99-3 (Conway 33, Phillips 8) Meredith comes back to bowl heat, and he does so. Conway lays into a cover drive and nearly takes Stoinis’ head off. He’s relatively close inside the circle and has less than a second to pick up the ball. Can’t see it, it basically hits his hands and bounces off rather than being dropped. Meredith races through Conway with a bouncer that clocks at nearly 150 kph despite being short. Then the bowler smashes Phillips on the back leg convincingly enough to make Finch take the review, although it supports the umpire’s decision that the impact was too high. Still, three runs from the over. NZ need 100 from 54.
10th over: New Zealand 96-3 (Conway 31, Phillips 7) Bang! Maxwell hits, then he gets hit. First ball of the night and Conway slog-sweeps it over midwicket. Maxwell just smiles. He’s bowling his off-breaks around the wicket to the left-handed Conway, coming very wide on the crease and angling it into his toes. Gets a single and a dot, but then the right-handed Phillips goes right back into his crease and heaves away six number two. Manages to make that ball just short enough to get under. That was to get off the mark, too. Three singles as well, and they’ve got back 15 of Maxwell’s 70 runs.
Halfway mark, 113 required from 10 overs.
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9th over: New Zealand 81-3 (Conway 23, Phillips 0) Four from the over, Phillips to the middle, and NZ need 128 from 66 balls.
WICKET! Guptill c Agar b Zampa 43 (28), NZ 80-3
Zampa is back, with the Wellington wind ruffling his hair, but it doesn’t stop him taking a wicket. I remember him bowling really well here in an ODI back in 2016, might have been his first series for Australia, the second match after Auckland? Picks up one here tonight, a bit of flight, Guptill goes big over cover but doesn’t get all of it, a bit too extra cover, and Agar gets around from long-off to take the catch on his knees.
8th over: New Zealand 77-2 (Guptill 42, Conway 20) Stoinis will get a bowl with his medium pace. Lands his first one perfectly, hitting Guptill in the hip as the batsman tries to pull, but it’s not short enough. Goes a bit fuller and hits Guptill on the pad outside the line of off stump. Full toss the third ball, but it’s a low one and spun out of the fingers and Guptill miscues down the ground. Just as it did for NZ in the field, it drops short as Maxwell charges in hoping to catch.
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7th over: New Zealand 71-2 (Guptill 37, Conway 19) The fielding restrictions are off, the spinner is on, left-armer Agar with the ball. Bowls a shorter ball that Conway deals with majestically, leaning back and flat-bat punching through cover along the ground for four. Agar beats him a couple of times on a perfect length, bouncing over his attempted sweeps, but bowls too full from his final two balls and they’re both smashed! One a cut shot, one a square drive, and the margin for error is very low.
6th over: New Zealand 59-2 (Guptill 37, Conway 7) A change of Richardsons with Kane coming on, the change-up specialist. He starts as he means to go on, hitting a hard length, then a yorker, changing his grips. Gets through the over with a wide and singles only.
5th over: New Zealand 52-2 (Guptill 34, Conway 4) Two balls left in the over when Conway comes in, and he’s nowhere near the first as it beats his edge and his off stump. The left-hander gropes at that but the line just takes the ball far enough away to spare his woodwork. Conway adapts quickly though, lofting the sixth ball over extra cover for four! One bounce, deliberately lifted. Overpitched from Riley.
WICKET! Williamson lbw Meredith 9 (6), NZ 48-2
The spin experiment is over, Meredith is back and thundering into Guptill’s thigh pad. Can’t give him anything shorter than that. Can’t get full, either. It’s a tough situation. Meredith does it again, this time with Guptill backing away to try to create room. The bowler follows him.
The speedo is clocking Meredith at high 140s and into the 150s as far as kilometres per hour go. And he uses that to smash the New Zealand captain on the front pad, right in front of his stumps! The ball purely beats him for pace as Williamson tries to flick across the line. He doesn’t bother to review.
4th over: New Zealand 47-1 (Guptill 33, Williamson 9) Jumping Jhye keeps bowling fast and keeps bowling short, so Guptill slashes him for six over third man. Into the cushion on the full. Does better with a ball decking in that Guptill under-edges to the keeper on the bounce, but lets it go with a full toss outside off which is easy to drill through cover for four. The over goes for 14.
3rd over: New Zealand 33-1 (Guptill 20, Williamson 8) Adam Zampa to bowl his leg-spin in the Powerplay, as he has done previously in this series. It doesn’t pay off though this time, as Williamson skips down the wicket and plonks him over long-on for six. When Guptill gets his turn he whacks the ball much flatter but just as straight, and Williamson hits the deck like he’s in London during the Blitz to get out of the way of what very quickly becomes a four.
WICKET! Seifert c Stoinis b Meredith 4 (4), NZ 20-1
2nd over: New Zealand 20-1 (Guptill 15) Riley Meredith to share the new ball, the IPL Brothers in action. He’s shaved the BBL moustache for his international debut. Again he starts alright, forcing a defensive shot from Seifert first ball, then hitting thigh pad and appealing from the second. But Guptill wants to assert himself immediately, shuffling to leg to make room and launching down the ground for six. Over mid-off, absolutely smokes that. Turns over the strike and Seifert backs him up by pulling a single, but then tries to finish the over by going over the leg side and instead gets a high leading edge to point, where Stoinis catches it falling backwards at the edge of the circle. Meredith is on the board for Australia.
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1st over: New Zealand 8-0 (Guptill 8, Seifert 0) Jhye Richardson starts things off for Australia, bowling at a good pace into the body of Martin Guptill. Keeps him quiet for five deliveries, but the Kiwi opener is able to lift a short ball all the way for six to end the over.
New Zealand must chase 209 to win
What a ride. Aaron Finch got back into the runs, a 69 that would have brought him great pleasure at the same time as bringing pleasure to others. That will be a relief, and might help him relax for his next couple of engagements. Philippe was ropey but effective, then Maxwell came in for an unsure start, quite a few misses, before hitting Beast Mode for a couple of overs that were decisive in the final analysis. He made 40 runs from 10 balls at one point against Neesham and Southee, as part of making 61 from 19 balls in the latter part of his innings after making 10 from his first 11.
New Zealand had a weird night in the field – not many drops, per se, but a lot of skied shots that didn’t get turned into catches. Whether that was entirely luck or was a bit of lacklustre focus, I’m not sure, but there were a couple of moments that suggested the right decisions weren’t being made.
Now it’s up to the home team to switch on for their batting reply.
20th over: Australia 208-4 (Stoinis 9, Marsh 6) Jamieson with the final over hits his yorker to start, hits the return crease next to draw a fresh-air swing from Stoinis, which forces Stoinis next ball into a big swing, high outside edge to deep point where Conway drops it diving full-length forward. Marsh steps across, anticipating the line, but hits it straight to cover for a dashed single. Stoinis backs away and gets an outside edge for a boundary, then squeezes out a single last ball. Good late pullback from NZ, 14 from the last two overs where Maxwell was threatening to take 30 or 40 from them.
19th over: Australia 200-4 (Stoinis 3, Marsh 4) Boult does what he so often does, keeping things quiet late in the innings. One six runs from the penultimate over, with a couple of dot balls, against two very powerful hitters.
WICKET! Maxwell c Seifert b Southee 70 (30), Australia 194-4
18th over: Australia 194-4 (Stoinis 1) Only one job for Stoinis, which is to give Maxwell the strike, and he does so first ball. Another short one from Southee that Maxi carves for four over backward point. Southee tries the yorker so Maxwell helicopters it for six, out of the blockhole over wide long-on. Then from the last ball he tries that reverse lift over short third man, and instead gloves it through to the keeper. The show is over, but it was great while it lasted. That most likely has set up a winning score. Stoinis has been part of a 41-run partnership and has made 1.
17th over: Australia 181-3 (Maxwell 58, Stoinis 0)
MAX
WELL
BALL
This is where it gets wild. Maxwell stops playing the reverses. First ball, leans back and carves away a cut shot from Neesham, all power for four.
Second ball, six. Sort of short, not enough. Maxwell leans back and goes leg side, a flat pull, and smashes a seat in the crowd. Lucky there’s no one allowed in. That ball literally punches a hole right through the back of the chair!
Third ball, four. Walks at Neesham, nails a straight drive along the ground under the bowler and splitting the outfielders down the ground.
Fourth ball, four. Lifts it this time, down the ground over Neesham.
Fifth ball, four. Backs away, gets room, down on one knee carving over backward point.
Sixth ball, six. Neesham tries very short, way outside off. Honey badger don’t care. Maxi just walks across to the ball, hops into the air, and heaves it over wide long-on for six!
Twenty-eight runs from the over. That’s 28.
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16th over: Australia 153-3 (Maxwell 30, Stoinis 0) Marcus Stoinis to the middle, one ball to come in the over, doesn’t score.
WICKET! Finch c Jamieson b Sodhi 69 (44), Australia 153-3
Maxwell after missing a conventional sweep shot changes to the reverse sweep and nails it for six. Over deep third. So Finch tries to do the same, given Sodhi’s wide line, but finds short third.
15th over: Australia 145-2 (Finch 68, Maxwell 24) What on earth can I say about that? We’ve seen many an inventive shot from Glenn Maxwell, we’re used to him playing reverses and switches. But this is something else again. He shapes to play a reverse lap shot against Southee, not swapping his hands on the bat, but turning the bat 180 degrees in his gloves so it’s facing behind square. Then he lifts the toe of the bat to the sky as though getting ready to ramp it over third man. But he sees it’s a slower ball, meaning his deflection shot might not clear the field. So he changes shot, and rather than holding the bat in place he swings the bat, reverse held, towards third man. Catches up with the ball, and it ends up being more of a reverse swat for four.
Insert bewildered staring eyes emoji.
Two balls later, he does the same thing with swapping the bat face, gets a shorter ball at his body, and plays what I can only call a reverse pull shot to the same region of the ground for four.
Southee gets in a couple of dot balls bowling short, Maxwell fresh-airing, but the last of the over is another slower ball and Maxwell camps, waits, then nails a conventional pull shot over midwicket.
The over costs 15.
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14th over: Australia 130-2 (Finch 68, Maxwell 10) Trent Boult is back, trying out the short ball, and Finch demolishes it. A fierce late cut for four, then a pull shot that’s just as good for four more. Now the timing is working for Finch. He gets off strike, two balls for Maxwell to face. “Come on Max!” shouts Finch for a second run after a nudge to midwicket, but Maxwell has the better view and shouts “No.” Finch back on strike, that means, and he cuts for four! Leans back, late cut, a long way behind point.
13th over: Australia 116-2 (Finch 55, Maxwell 9) Maxi is having a shocker against Neesham. Backs away and has to reach for a ball that he squeezes for two, then misses two in a row that just miss the stumps after Maxwell backs away and tries to swing. Three dots in a row as he gets a wide short ball and leaves it, hoping for an umpire’s intervention, but it’s not too short. But the sequence ends with the final ball of the over as Neesham bowls a touch too leg side, and Maxwell just moves across a tiny bit to glance it fine for four. Salvages the over.
Half-century! Aaron Finch 51 from 34 balls
12th over: Australia 109-2 (Finch 54, Maxwell 3) Sodhi lets one slip. He bowls a full toss at near enough to head height, which Maxwell can only pull away for a single to long-on. They could have pushed for two runs but Finch was pretty happy to settle for one, because now he has the strike for a free hit. And he plays the switch hit for six! Swaps over as the ball comes down, becomes a left-hander, and with Sodhi having dragged it down as well, Finch absolutely poleaxes it over deep midwicket, effectively, though it was deep cover for the right-hander. What a shot.
11th over: Australia 95-2 (Finch 43, Maxwell 2) A moment for New Zealand to take a breath as Jamieson’s over only concedes six runs, with Maxwell thinking about settling and Finch hitting a couple pretty close to the infield.
WICKET! Philippe c Guptill b Sodhi 43 (27), Australia 902
10th over: Australia 89-2 (Finch 39) Smart bowling from Sodhi, sees Finch about to charge and so he floats the ball very wide and pulls back the length. Finch gets some bat on it to avoid a stumping, but only a single. Then good accuracy as Sodhi lands one right on the return crease to Philippe, who can’t score more than one. The batsmen try the sweep against Sodhi but that doesn’t work too well either. Philippe doesn’t know what to do with the wide line and keeps trying to drag it back to leg. He gets yet another lucky moment as he skews one straight and it lands between long-on and long-off converging. But his luck runs out from the last ball of the over, trying the same shot, and this time Guptill from long-off gets across to take the catch low to the turf sliding across the grass.
9th over: Australia 84-1 (Finch 37, Philippe 40) Jamieson again, overpitched again, and Finch lifts it over midwicket. “Three, three, three,” he calls, with deep square leg having a long trek around, but it beats that man for four. Down the wicket comes Finch next ball, skipping at a huge fast bowler, and nails it for four! That’s out of the middle, over cover. Though if he’s feeling good, it doesn’t help him next ball when he throws the bat and squirts a couple of runs past his stumps to fine leg. Jamieson pulls the length back at long last, in at the thigh pad and keeps Finch to a single. Again Philippe tries to keep up with the scoring rate, and again he gets lucky, trying to pull and this time getting a high top edge that lands between midwicket and long-on running at the ball. Two runs from that, and two from yet another lucky shot as Philippe whips in the air wide of Boult at long-on, bouncing just in front of the fielder.
8th over: Australia 69-1 (Finch 26, Philippe 36) “Oh, you bastard,” mutters Aaron Finch to the ball as he tries to force down the ground and miscues it for a single. Hasn’t hit one cleanly out of the middle today, boundaries notwithstanding. Ish Sodhi is bowling his leg-spin. Singles and a double to the cover boundary, seven from the over. Nice score.
7th over: Australia 62-1 (Finch 21, Philippe 34) Runs starting to flow! The 50 partnership comes up as Neesham keeps bowling on a length outside off stump and Philippe keeps spanking him. A cut shot so fierce that there’s barely time to blink before it hits the rope, then a decent cover drive lofted over the man in the circle. 15 from the over including a no-ball and the subsequent free hit that goes for two. Neesham 25 from his two overs so far.
6th over: Australia 47-1 (Finch 21, Philippe 21) Kyle Jamieson on to bowl, the towering figure that he is. Had the yips badly in his first two matches this series, we’ll see whether the time off has helped. Lands a hard length first ball outside off, and Philippe plays it on the rise through cover. Gets three runs. Jamieson overpitches to Finch and he hits straight for four again! Again not perfect contact, you can tell from the sound of the ball, but enough. Williamson has long-off back for Finch now, but he aims for long-on and the slight mistiming takes it straight, but not enough for long-off to get across and catch. Drops a single, then Philippe tries to match Finch’s hitting but crucially he goes across the line a bit, not straight. Gets a huge outside edge that goes dozens of metres up, but lands safely between the keeper getting back and Trent Boult coming up from deep third.
5th over: Australia 38-1 (Finch 15, Philippe 17) Jimmy Neesham is on early with his medium pace. Dishes up a comfy one, half volley outside off stump. Finch cue-ends it a bit, it sounds clunky off the bat, but he’s hitting straight rather than across the line, and gets enough to just clear the rope at long-off. Would have been a catch had the field been back, but that’s the benefit of the Powerplay for the batting side. He tries again, does Finch, against a wrist-spinning slower ball, and skews it this time, up high but very straight once again, and it lands safely inside the rope right behind the bowler, and trickles into the cushion. Four. “No, that’s a bad shot,” he says as he tries to steer behind point and finds the field. He practices another straight drive. Just wants to use that area of strength of his, down the ground: the marker of almost every good innings he’s played has been straight drives at the start. The two scoring shots and four dots from the Neesham over, 10 runs in all.
4th over: Australia 28-1 (Finch 5, Philippe 17) A big of his Sixers style from Philippe! On the pads from Boult, and the batsman lifts it off his pads with lovely timing over square leg for six. That comes after knocking two runs to square leg. Boult burrows through onto the pad but his appeal is turned down, just a bit too leg-side from the left-arm bowler. He overpitches looking to repeat the dose and Philippe lifts two down the ground, then whips four through midwicket! Along the ground that time, a couple of perfect bits of timing in that over.
3rd over: Australia 14-1 (Finch 5, Philippe 3) Southee continues and he beats Philippe with a beauty. Angles in, swings away, past the outside edge and the off stump. Then has Philippe squeezing a dot ball off the inside edge. Finally the new batsman gets a run, pushing to mid off, and then Finch advances to chip over mid-off for four. No power in the shot, just pushes it away down the ground. His first scoring shot. They trade singles thereafter.
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2nd over: Australia 7-1 (Finch 0, Philippe 1) Enter Ryan ‘Cruel Intentions’ Philippe, who gets off the mark against Boult stabbing a single off his pads. New Zealand’s opening bowlers making it tough.
WICKET! Wade c Guptill b Boult 5 (6), Australia 6-1
The ball is swinging, and it does the damage! Boult pitches up first ball of the over and is driven for four, great shot, but he adjusts the length immediately. Wade leaves one swinging away, then pushes at the next, on the up. Gets the thick edge to first slip.
1st over: Australia 2-0 (Wade 1, Finch 0) Righto, away we go. Tim Southee starts the day to the left-handed Wade, sparing Finch the immediate strike. Starts with a wide, then gets some inswing to Wade that takes a couple of attempts to get away. Finally a single, and Finch has to face the music.
Huge appeal for lbw! First ball! Given not out! He gets oh so lucky. Southee was so confident that he does a Stuart Broad, running down the pitch arms raised before finally looking back as he reaches the batsman. Angle into the right-hander, swinging back and straightening, and the umpire says that the angle was just too much to the leg side. NZ review, and DRS says it’s hitting leg stump pretty firmly but not quite enough, and it’s umpire’s call. Finch survives!
Another big shout next ball, but Finch has advanced far enough that there’s no way to give that out. Flush on the pad again. Yikes.
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Tomorrow will be the last instalment in the India-England Test series too, all on the OBO of course.
Teams
For NZ, the Santner swap for Chapman that we mentioned earlier has taken place. Keep an eye on his bowling if called upon. Neesham might be bowling more today than he has been. For Australia, Riley Meredith makes his debut which is great, but Sams misses out. Peculiar. His left-arm pace did go for a bunch of runs, I guess, and that’s his strongest suit. But his work with the bat was outstanding.
Australia
Aaron Finch *
Matthew Wade +
Josh Philippe
Glenn Maxwell
Marcus Stoinis
Mitchell Marsh
Ashton Agar
Jhye Richardson
Kane Richardson
Riley Meredith
Adam Zampa
New Zealand
Martin Guptill
Tim Seifert +
Kane Williamson *
Devon Conway
Glenn Phillips
Jimmy Neesham
Mark Chapman
Tim Southee
Kyle Jamieson
Ish Sodhi
Trent Boult
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New Zealand win the toss and will bowl
The coin lands for Kane Williamson, who says that given it’s a drop-in pitch and it will have three matches played on it, he’d like a look at it as a fielding team before having to bat. They’ll chase today, unlike the way they won the first two matches.
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You can email or tweet me as per the details in the sidebar, it sometimes gets a bit too hectic in T20s to keep up, but I’d be glad to read your responses to the game as we go.
Preamble
It has been six long days, almost an entire week, since the Stoinis and Sams show at Dunedin turned a routine New Zealand win into a thriller. (New Zealand still won.) The touring Australians are 2-0 down with three to play, so you can probably do the maths about the necessity of winning today in order to remain a chance of winning the series. For that to happen, some things will need to chance. Mostly that the players picked for their batting need to make some runs. Three wickets in an over in Dunedin, an early collapse of 4-19 in Christchurch before that, and lots of talk around Aaron Finch’s diminishing opportunities to find a score in this format and ease any doubts about him captaining the team to the T20 World Cup later this year.
One variable in the equation, and one thing that could perhaps reduce New Zealand’s home advantage, is that all three remaining matches will be played in Wellington. NZ’s minor virus outbreak means that moving around the country is not advised, thus they’ll stay put. It also means there will be no crowds in for the remaining games, so that will affect the players on the field. Whether a silent stadium will help the visiting team by levelling things up, or make it harder to find the required intensity, is entirely speculative. Reports from the first couple of games involved a lot of abuse coming over the fence, so at least there won’t be any more of that.
New Zealand will be forced to make one change, with all-rounder Mitchell Santner ruled out as a precaution due to some illness symptoms that have required a covid test, though he probably just has a cold. The only replacement options are Hamish Bennett, a seamer with no batting chops, or Mark Chapman, who bowls left-arm spin like Santner but in a much more part-time capacity while mostly being a batsman.
Australia will likely have a few changes. This was a double-header, too, with the NZ women’s side being thumped by England not long ago, bowled out for 96 which was chased easily.
