Australia v New Zealand T20 series: Impressive Kiwis blow passive Aussies away in decider
What will Australia do at arguably the most important position in the batting order? That’s the sole remaining headache left for T20 World Cup selectors after the series defeat to New Zealand.
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Steve Smith’s position in the World Cup team appears to be the only unanswered question remaining after Australia jetted home from New Zealand on Sunday night with its Twenty20 plans largely crystalized.
The Black Caps crushed the understrength Aussies by seven wickets in the series-deciding T20 in Wellington in what was Australia’s last international game in any form until a white-ball West Indies tour in July.
Just 12 players were used in the five-match series – Riley Meredith replacing Daniel Sams after the second game was the only change.
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The Aussies look set on playing four specialist bowlers – three frontline quicks plus leg-spinner Adam Zampa – with left-handed all-rounder Ashton Agar at No.7.
The World Cup quicks will probably be Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc and one of Jhye Richardson or Kane Richardson.
Right-handed dynamos Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis and Mitchell Marsh will power up the middle order while captain Aaron Finch is back in the runs at the top.
Coach Andrew McDonald has declared if vice-captain and wicketkeeper Matthew Wade plays he must bat in the top three, and so assuming opener David Warner returns then Wade would presumably come in at No.3, as he did on Sunday.
Smith made 12 (9), 46 (38) and 24 (23) at No.3 against India in December and his record at first drop towers over other positions.
But selectors say he is adaptable and so floating down the order would be considered, although it would presumably come at the expense of a middle-order batsman such as Stoinis or Marsh.
The latest word out of Dubai is that the ICC is making plans to cap World Cup squads at 23 – made up of 15 players and eight staff members – and allowing countries to fund additional players if they wish.
They could also pay for a doctor to come as a ninth staff member.
That model would see Australia’s bean counters deciding whether the likes of Josh Philippe, Moises Henriques, Meredith, Sams and the benchwarmers from New Zealand should fly to India for the October-November tournament.
Ashton Turner, Ben McDermott, D’Arcy Short, Jason Behrendorff, AJ Tye and teenager Tanveer Sangha all flew to New Zealand but went unused.
The Aussies did not have access to Test players Warner, Smith, Cummins, Starc or fringe all-rounder Henriques against the Black Caps.
Finch blamed Sunday’s loss on himself and Wade batting too passively.
One of them, he said, had to bat deep and bat big.
“When you invest 32 balls into your innings you want to be the one to kick on and go on and get that 60, 70 80-run score that can turn that into 160 or 170 score,” Finch said.
Wade – just like in the Test summer – played some crisp strokes this series without ever reaching 50.
Martin Guptill (71 off 46) was the matchwinner. The 34-year-old started the series in the gun and finished it firing.
Guptill swept Adam Zampa on to the Cake Tin roof with a 91m monster on his way to a 21-run over as he celebrated a 33-ball 50.
Newcomer Meredith boasts career figures of 2-0 against Kane Williamson and when he was on a hat-trick as it looked like there was a pulse.
But it was short-lived. Guptill then pounded three fours off Meredith’s next over and specialist boundary-basher Glenn Phillips then iced the easiest of run chases with 27 balls to spare.
Phillips rarely bothers running between the wickets and there will be no running from the poundings the Aussies received in the first and final games.
Australia has now lost three-straight T20 series for the first time since George Bailey was captain in 2012-13.
The five-match series in New Zealand was probably lost in Dunedin, where Australia’s review concluded that the four-run loss was the one that got away.
Chasing 220 in game two, the Aussies needed just 36 from the last three overs on a good wicket at a small ground.
Philippe opened the batting on Sunday, but closed his maiden international series with just two runs.
The Aussies flipped him and Wade so that they had an extra left-hander batting deeper in the innings to target the spinners.
Wade burst out of the blocks and then New Zealand slammed on the brakes.
But the Aussies were 1-74 after 59 balls with Wade and Finch at the crease.
It was a launching pad which should’ve propelled a target far greater than 143.
The final 61 balls yielded 7-68, including 5-43 off the last seven overs.
Agar’s final three innings produced 0, 0 and 6 while Maxwell’s second-ball reverse sweep flew straight to Trent Boult.
Stoinis (26 off 28) received a few looseners early – and then miscued a filthy Ish Sodhi full toss.
Sodhi won player of the series, his 13 wickets a record for a bilateral T20 series and towering over Agar (eight), Kane Richardson and Trent Boult (seven).
Spin fingers: Medical condition forcing Zampa to heat up
The recent onset of Raynaud’s disease has forced Adam Zampa to thaw his fingers before bowling on chilly nights by dunking them in hot water to return the blood flow.
The rare condition is activated when the mercury drops, causing Zampa’s fingers to turn white and go numb, which is why he always carries hand warmers in his pockets and is often seen blowing on his hands.
“As you saw (on Friday night) I had the ice bag, which is usually filled with ice for people’s hamstrings or glutes, I have it full of boiling water for my hands,” Zampa said.
“I can manage it OK. I don’t know how it’s come about, it only started a couple of years ago, but if it’s chilly my fingers go white and I start to lose feeling in them.
“I’ve had to problem solve a little bit around that. Obviously hand warmers are massive, but sometimes they don’t work as well as I need them to.”
Raynaud’s is a disease of the small blood vessels which affects blood supply to superficial structures, especially skin of the fingers and toes.
Zampa said it also flared when batsmen smacked the ball back at the tips of his fingers.
“I try not to make too many excuses around it, I just try and make sure my hands are warm when I’m about to bowl or take a catch,” he said.
“It’s a little bit weird, but I’ve worked out ways to make sure it’s not too big of an issue.”
Zampa and Ashton Agar have found their flow in New Zealand, and the spin twins will look to bowl Australia to a 3-2 win in the series-decider on Sunday.
But when Australia bats Zampa and Kane Richardson will sit in the changerooms — instead of the dugout — for musical reasons.
“(We) rap together while the boys are out there batting. Kane Richardson thinks he’s a good rapper,” the quirky leg-spinner said.
Zampa said captain Aaron Finch had “more kick in his step” after his emphatic return to form in the past two wins.
“As professional sportsmen you tend to unfortunately read what is written about you,” Zampa said.
“You could tell that was starting to get to him a little bit. But as soon as he walked on the park he led the team beautifully.”
The same Wellington pitch will be used for a third-straight T20 and Zampa said the heavy foot traffic has dried it out.
Finch bowled 11 overs of spin on Friday as Zampa, Agar and Glenn Maxwell combined for 6-49.
“As bowlers looking forward to the World Cup we need to be able to bowl anywhere between the first and 20th over,” Zampa said.
Zampa’s friendship with Agar has helped them forge a damaging bowling partnership, where they share valuable intelligence between overs and train well together.
The Aussies will jet home on Sunday night. Zampa was unsure whether he would return for New South Wales before flying to India for the IPL or enjoy a break leading up to his wedding with sweetheart Harriet
HISTORY REPEATING FOR TRIUMPHANT AUSSIES IN RUN TO WORLD CUP
Justin Langer must be watching Australia’s Twenty20 series from the couch at home wondering if his calendar is broken.
For Langer and several players who celebrated in Wellington on Friday night it must feel like 2019 all over again.
Rewind two years and Australia’s ODI team was a laughing stock approaching the World Cup.
Captain Aaron Finch was on the chopping block after 37 runs in five games and the Aussies were 0-2 in India without David Warner and Steve Smith.
Then, overnight, poof. It clicked. The mojo was back.
Finch hammered scores of 93, 116, 153 not-out and 90 in six subcontinent games to roar back into form and Australia pulled off a famous 3-2 series win in India to turbocharge its run to the World Cup, where Warner and Smith returned.
Well, in New Zealand, history is repeating in a T20 World Cup year.
Finch backed up Wednesday’s 69 (44) with 79 not out (55) to prove his famine is over as Australia, again playing without Smith and Warner, converted a 0-2 start to 2-2 with a 50-run victory against the Black caps.
“Really proud of the group,” Finch said.
“The way that we’ve fought – and it’s not the first time we’ve done it either in a series where we’ve been on wood from two games in.
“We got a lot of information out of the way New Zealand bowled and we adapted beautifully.”
They will enter Sunday morning’s series decider as crowds return in Wellington a hot favourite because just as the ODI game plan suddenly meshed in 2019, across the ditch the T20 tactics are blossoming.
Those watching from afar might wonder why the Aussies have used just 12 players in four games.
Wasn’t this tour billed as a fact-finding mission?
Ben McDermott, D’Arcy Short, Jason Behrendorff, AJ Tye and Tanveer Sangha have only carried the drinks while Ashton Turner has already gone home without playing a game.
But Jhye Richardson has made a nice return to international cricket, Ashton Agar has returned from a nasty calf tear and Josh Philippe and Riley Meredith have earned their T20 caps to make it a valuable tour.
The Aussies have also taught Agar how to bowl early overs, floated Mitchell Marsh up and down the order and, of course, Finch has found his groove.
Agar bowled three of the first five powerplay overs last night, using them to drain all power from the Black Cap openers.
The all-rounder created pressure and then cashed in as Martin Guptill found Glenn Maxwell on the rope.
“Ashton Agar was outstanding, he was brilliant,” Finch said.
Riley’s raw pace was again laser accurate and Test superstar Pat Cummins said his long run-up shoved batters back in their crease.
“I really like his run up,” Cummins said.
“He bowls fast, but he’s intimidating as well because he sprints in.”
The Aussies had their preparation rocked by an earthquake when they were woken at 2.27am on Friday morning.
Finch was rattled by it.
“I think I woke up at 2.29am and my room was shaking – I thought I was having a dream,” he said.
“I got up, stood up, and didn’t really know what to do. A couple of our guys might’ve run straight down the fire exit and straight down to reception.”
But there were no signs of lethargy at the Cake Tin.
Matthew Wade, Glenn Maxwell and Marcus Stoinis all started in a mood, but it proved a sugar hit as crisp catches ended their cameos.
Stoinis muscled his way to 19 only for a Kane Williamson screamer to outshine his three boundaries.
Maxwell crunched 16 off four consecutive balls and then chipped his next one to Guptill.
But Finch carried his bat as the glue and finally turned his frustration to fury in the final over, which for Kyle Jamieson was almost as expensive as his $2.66 million IPL price tag.
Stuck in second gear on a stodgy pitch, Finch found the clutch to punch three consecutive sixes off Jamieson in a 26-run over that pushed the Aussies to 6-156.
“I felt like I was hitting them terribly for a large portion of the innings,” Finch said after his slowest half century for Australia.
“But it was one of those wickets where you never really felt totally in, particularly when spin was bowling.
“When you’ve invested 25-30 balls you want to make sure you’re there deep in the innings.
“Two new batters on a surface like that was going to be really challenging.”
Jamieson has 1-175 (15 overs) this series, with his economy rate nudging 12, and Royal Challengers Bangalore – who delisted Finch – might be wondering whether that was money well spent.
AUSSIE CRICKETERS IN NZ EARTHQUAKE SCARE
Australia’s preparations for its must-win Twenty20 against New Zealand have been rocked – literally – overnight in Wellington.
Players and staff were woken at 2.27am as one of three earthquakes struck off the coast of New Zealand.
Their beds and rooms were shaking for a couple of minutes, which felt like a lot longer at the time.
While it came as a sharp fright, thankfully no damage has been recorded.
The Black Caps are staying across the road from the Aussies.
The earthquake struck 105km east of Te Araroa on the east coast, and was followed by significant quakes at 6.41am (magnitude 7.4) and 8.28am (8.1).
Locals were advised to stay away from beach and marine areas.
The Aussies crushed the Kiwis by 64 runs in Wellington on Wednesday to keep the five-match series alive.
Another win on Friday night would level the series at 2-2 heading into Sunday’s final game, which will also be played in Wellington.
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