New Zealand Australia T20 International Series
1st Match (Day and Night) Played at Christchurch on 22 February 2021
New Zealand 184/5 (Devon Conway 99*, Glen Phillips 30, James Neesham 26, Jhyle Richardson 2/31, Daniel Sams 2/40).
Australia 131 All Out In 17.3 Overs (Mitchell Marsh 45, Aston Agar 23, Ish Sodhi 4/28, Tim Southee 2/10, Trent Boult 2/ 22)
New Zealand Won by 53 Runs
Player Of The Match: Devon Conway
On a typical Kiwi bouncy wicket seaming and swinging prodigiously under strength Australia proved no match to red hot black caps. New Zealand winning by huge 53 runs forged ahead 1-0 in the 5 matches T20 series.
Batting first Home team after getting rocked to 19/3 could produce 184/5 through a top quality well-paced unbeaten innings of 99 by Devon Conway. Australia in response could score only 131. Their batsmen had no answer to brilliant opening burst of champion bowlers Tim Southee (2/10) and Trent Boult (2/22). Ish Sodhi taking 4/28 proved while leg spinners are considered X-Factors in all formats. New Zealand also fielded brilliantly taking some astonishing catches.
Australia originally was scheduled to play test series against South Africa during this time. Cricket Australia had no option but to announce different sides for two assignments. Even though the South Africa tour was called off for Covid situation CA stuck to the original team. World cricket knows that Black Caps are now in peak forms in all formats. They would have given tough time to full strength Australia team even.
On a wicket tailor made for the home side Australians did not have the weapons to rattle New Zealand. Asked to bat first home team ran into early trouble losing 3/19 including the wickets of Guptill and Wailliamson by the fourth over. Wicket was seaming and swinging. The bounce was also steep. From such difficult situation Devon Conway playing only his 7th T20 International played an innings of top quality. His first job was resurrecting the innings with his partners Glen Phillips first and later with Neesham. He has to pace his innings smartly for producing a challenging target as well. His unbeaten 99 in 59 deliveries comprising of 10 fours and 3 sixes was the match defining innings. He had 74 runs 4th wicket partnership with Phillips and 47 with Neesham. Australia just did not have quality-bowling depth to exploit the wicket and the state of the match.
Chasing 186 on a wicket where Southee and Boult cherish to bowl can be a challenge for any top order of the world at this moment. In no time Australia was decimated to 4/19. New Zealand also had emerging tall left arm seam bowler Kyle Jamieson in their possession as well as crafty leg spinner Ish Sodhi. Unfortunately, none not even Mitchell Marsh or Stoinis could do what Conway did. Rather great bowling of Ish Sodhi (4/28) and smart catches by Jamieson and Santner crushed Australia to 131 all out. Only Marsh could produce an innings of substance 45. New Zealand proved too good for understrength Australia.
BANGLADESH WOULD BE UP AFAINST A VERY STRONG NEW ZEALAND SOON. THEY MUST KEEP AN CLOSE EYE ON THE SERIES.
BDST: 1636 HRS, FEB 22, 2021
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