Rampant New Zealand annihilate Australia in a lopsided decider

New Zealand comprehensively defeated Australia in the series decider at the Westpack Stadium in Wellington to clinch the five-match T20 series by a 3-2 margin. As the scoreline suggests, the series was closely fought between the two sides looking to try various team combinations on the road to the World T20 scheduled for later this year.

New Zealand had made a brisk start in the series, winning the first two matches convincingly. But a tremendous Australian resurgence meant that the series was stretched to the final game. New Zealand needed players to turn up at the top of their marks with the series at stake (2-2), the players put their hands up to put Australia under pressure right from the start.

The hosts were given a modest total of 143 to chase and clinch the series, but with Australian bowlers running riot in the last couple of games, the onus was on the faltering batting line up to see the Blackcaps through the finishing line.

The hosts made a change in the batting order promoting Devon Conway to open the batting while Tim Seifert was shifted down the order. The decision to combine Conway and Martin Guptill must have baffled the Australian camp. The move paid off well for the hosts, and the duo started teeing off after taking some balls to settle their eyes in.

Ashton Agar was handed the new ball by Finch in search of some spin available in the last game, but Guptill was in good enough form and mood to not allow him into a rhythm. The left-arm spinner was punished for his inaccuracies from his second over and the Blackcaps were up and running in the chase.

The two Richardsons—Jhye and Kane were brought into the attack one by one, but the latter was treated by an in-form Guptill who punished him for being either too full or too short in the penultimate over of the only powerplay.

The newest entrant into the talent-rich pool of the Australian pacers—Riley Meredith has been impressive all series with his consistent pace, but Finch needed some wickets out of him in the powerplay to shift the game towards Australia. The young man failed to put pressure on batsmen as Devon Conway took a liking to him and deposited him for a boundary and a six to end a perfect powerplay for the hosts.

Adam Zampa was introduced into the attack after the powerplay on a pitch that had little grip and bounce, but the treatment dished out to him was not any different from others.

If Australia were not concerned by Guptill’s way of batting up until that point, Zampa’s next over brought a carnage for them. Guptill started the over with a signature no-look shot that landed at the roof of the Westpac Stadium and followed it by another no-look slog sweep and a big six down the ground to bring up a superlative fifty from just 33 balls.

Guptill came into the series with questions marks over his fitness and lack of runs for a prolonged period of time. Not only did he pass the fitness test, but he also repaid the faith of Williamson and Garry Stead in matches that followed. The innings in the decider would give him confidence and ease the nerves of Kiwi think tank going into the T20 World Cup.

Guptill's batting partner today, Devon Conway was rewarded with a promotion given the poor returns from Seifert. He was calculative in his batting but never for once slowed down after he got into his groove. 

With the openers not playing any false shots, Finch was running out of options and once again looked towards Meredith. The Hurricanes bowler took the white ball in the 12th over and dismissed both Conway and Williamson on back to back deliveries. Williamson, in particular, was once again hurried by the speedster, something that has emerged out to be the theme in this series.

However, the task was steep for the tourists as the required run rate was already cut down to size by the opening partnership of Guptill and Conway, and whatever left was completed very competently by Glenn Phillips who made no fuss about the pressure of series-decider.

Earlier, Aaron Finch won the toss and elected to put the runs on board with a revamped batting order where the vice-captain Matthew Wade was shunted down the order after four failures in the series for an enterprising and exuberant Josh Philippe.

The move though did not pay off immediately for the tourists as an accurate Trent Boult had done his homework on Philippe’s shuffling across to the off side and trapped him plumb with the one coming in. 

Although the first part of the revamping did not work, Matthew Wade’s shift to number three worked well both for him and the team as the left-hander found some rhythm going from the first few balls he faced. Along with Finch, Wade started the resurrection work for Australia with some crisp shots over the in-field.

The batsmen were finding boundaries periodically but were not dominant enough to put real pressure on the bowling attack. The hosts knew the Australian captain and vice-captain was not taking the game away from them, however, there was an imminent threat of onslaught in the later half of the innings.

Realising they were not going at a rapid rate and lack of momentum with the bat, Finch called time on his cautious batting and put the leg spinner Ish Sodhi to the sword in his second over, and hit him for two boundaries. Sodhi was economical in his first over and it prompted Finch to attack him, and the spinner was lucky enough to see the back of the Australian skipper with a short one that deserved to be punished.

At the halfway point, Australia were 74/2 and it was a perfect platform for the likes of Glenn Maxwell and Marcus Stoinis to go big and put a competitive total on the scoreboard. However, inconsistency and Maxwell remained best friends as the all-rounder found a fielder stationed on the square leg boundary off a full toss from Mark Chapman.

Here, one thing that needs to be mentioned is how Kane Williamson marshalled his troops with the series on the line. Playing with five proper bowlers in the game (Sodhi, Santner, Boult, Southee and Neesham), captain Kane did not give the ball to Neesham. He rather chose to give a couple of overs to rookie Mark Chapman and wicket-keeper Glenn Phillips. The move worked and the lack of pace completely halted the Aussie momentum.

Despite the pressure, Wade worked through the Kiwi bowling and got boundaries whenever options were available. Trent Boult was brought back in the 15th over and dismissed Wade with a knuckle ball to push Australia significantly back from the path of a big score. Stoinis was keeping his shape and Australia in the game with periodic hits over the boundaries, but Sodhi’s best for the night was yet to come.

The leg spinner came back in his third over and accounted for both Stoinis and Ashton Agar to crush all hopes of an Australian big score in the series decider. However, one has to say that it is quite rare that back to back full tosses are miscued by quality batsmen in the world. 

Mitchell Marsh was left to do it all alone, and he could not become a hero for the Aussies to save them from the prospect of not having too many runs to put New Zealand under pressure.

For his fantastic 77 with the bat in an all-important series decider, Martin Guptill was adjudged Man of the Match while consistent good performances with the ball across the five-match series earned Ish Sodhi Man of the Series award.