Fourth T20I report: Captain Aaron Finch carried his bat for 79 from 55 balls to propel Australia to a 50-run win over New Zealand in the fourth Twenty20 and level the five-match series 2-2 on Friday.
With Finch’s impetus, Australia made 156-6 batting first before New Zealand foundered on a slow pitch, bowled out for 106 in 18.5 overs.
Finch won the toss and decided Australia would bat first on the same pitch where it had beaten New Zealand by 64 runs in the previous match, and which he said “looks hard and at its best for batting.”
It was anything but. The wicket at the Wellington stadium — empty of spectators for the second match in a row — was sticky and the slow bowlers wreaked havoc in both innings.
After Finch, Marcus Stoinis’s 19 and Glenn Maxwell’s 18 were the next-best scores in an innings which looked inadequate and unlikely to test New Zealand.
Finch reached one of the slowest of his 14 T20 half centuries from 47 balls without hitting a six and Australia struggled to 100 from 15 overs. But he made amends by hitting three sixes and 26 runs from the last over by Kyle Jamieson to lift his side to a competitive total.
« I think just hanging in there towards the end helped me out,” Finch said. “I had visions of ending up something like 50 off 60 balls and looking a right fool.
“But I was lucky to get some momentum towards the end of the innings. I think I was trying to hit it a bit too hard before that.
“We lost a couple of wickets along the way and couldn’t load up from the 15th or 16th over, so we just had to take it as deep as we could and it was nice to get a few out of the middle near the end.”
New Zealand couldn’t gain any momentum in its reply, losing wickets at regular intervals and lacking a contribution to match Finch’s.
Jamieson’s 30 from 18 balls, batting at No. 9 in a lost cause, was the best effort. Opener Tim Seifert made 19 and Devon Conway 17.
Seifert and Santner dragged balls onto their stumps, Glenn Phillips (1) was run out in a mix-up with Conway and the remainder of the batsmen were out to catches close to, or in front, of the wicket. That reflected the slow pace of the pitch.
Australia had the confidence to use three spinners and they shared six wickets for 49 runs. Ashton Agar took 2-11, following his 6-30 in the third match, Maxwell claimed 2-14 and Adam Zampa picked up 2-24.
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Both sides took advantage of University Oval’s short boundaries in a thrilling match that featured 30 sixes and 434 runs at an average of 10.9 an over.
Catch scorcard of first T20I between New Zealand and Australia
Conway improved on his previous high score of 65 in T20Is, coming to the crease when New Zealand were 11-2 and leaving unbeaten when they were 184/5 after winning the toss and batting first.
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New Zealand beat Australia by 7 wickets
Australia beat New Zealand by 50 runs
Sri Lanka beat West Indies by 43 runs
India beat England by an innings and 25 runs
West Indies beat Sri Lanka by 4 wickets
Pakistan beat South Africa by 4 wickets
South Africa beat Pakistan by 6 wickets
India beat England by 317 runs
Pakistan beat South Africa by 3 runs
Afghanistan beat Ireland by 36 runs
Pakistan beat South Africa by 7 wickets
Bangladesh beat West Indies by 120 runs
Afghanistan beat Ireland by 7 wickets
England beat Sri Lanka by 7 wickets
Australia drew with India
New Zealand beat Pakistan by an innings and 176 runs
South Africa beat Sri Lanka by 10 wickets
New Zealand beat Pakistan by 101 runs
India beat Australia by 8 wickets
South Africa beat Sri Lanka by an innings and 45 runs
Pakistan beat New Zealand by 4 wickets
New Zealand beat Pakistan by 5 wickets
Australia beat India by 8 wickets
New Zealand beat West Indies by an innings and 12 runs
Australia beat India by 12 runs
India beat Australia by 6 wickets
New Zealand beat West Indies by an innings and 134 runs
Mumbai Indians beat Delhi Capitals by 5 wickets
Pakistan beat Zimbabwe by 8 wickets
Delhi Capitals beat Sunrisers Hyderabad by 17 runs
Pakistan beat Zimbabwe by 8 wickets
Pakistan beat Zimbabwe by 6 wickets
Sunrisers Hyderabad beat Royal Challengers Bangalore by 6 wickets
Mumbai Indians beat Delhi Capitals by 57 runs
Zimbabwe tied with Pakistan (Zimbabwe win Super Over by 2 wickets)
Romania beat Bulgaria by 6 wickets
Romania beat Bulgaria by 34 runs
Romania beat Bulgaria by 52 runs
Bulgaria beat Romania by 33 runs
Australia beat England by 5 wickets
England beat Australia by 6 wickets
New Zealand beat Australia by 7 wickets
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