New Zealand strike bowlers Trent Boult and Matt Henry destroyed world champions Australia and set up a comprehensive 159-run victory in their opening one-day international in Auckland yesterday.
In reply to New Zealand’s 307-8, Australia were all out for 148 in the 25th over. New Zealand, sent in to bat, made an aggressive start with Martin Guptill (90), Henry Nicholls (61) and Brendon McCullum (44) getting them past the 200 mark in 30 overs.
The run rate slowed with the tailenders, but a total in excess of 300 at Eden Park, even with its short boundaries, was competitive.
Photo: AP
Australia were never seriously in contention with their reply. Their innings began to unravel at the start, as Henry and Boult ripped out the top order to have the tourists reeling on 41-6 after nine overs.
In Henry’s first over, he had Shaun Marsh caught in the slips for five with a ball that moved across the left-hander. He followed up with the dismissal of Steve Smith, bowled for 18, and George Bailey for two.
Boult removed David Warner for 12 and claimed Glenn Maxwell and Mitchell Marsh without either scoring. Warner was dismissed LBW after being hit on the front pad and after discussion with Bailey at the other end, he decided to walk.
However, replays showed that had he appealed the dismissal, it would probably have been overturned.
Matthew Wade and James Faulkner attempted a rescue mission for Australia, with a 79-run stand for the seventh wicket, but when they fell six balls apart, the innings was effectively done. Spinner Mitchell Santner came on for his one over of the game and took the final two wickets of Kane Richardson and John Hastings with his first two deliveries to finish the match sitting on a hat-trick. However, the main bowling damage was done by Boult with three for 38 and Henry with three for 41.
Guptill and Nicholls provided the backbone for New Zealand after McCullum, in his final appearance at Eden Park, ignited the innings in typical swashbuckling fashion.
McCullum left the ground to a standing ovation when his innings ended on 44 off 29 balls, with five fours and three sixes. Kane Williamson fell for a duck, but Guptill and Nicholls put on 100 for the third wicket before Guptill was run out.
With his dismissal, four wickets fell for 53 runs in 12 overs, with Santner’s unbeaten 35 at the tail the only other innings of note. The second game in the series is in Wellington on Saturday.
Tallon Griekspoor on Friday stunned top seed Alexander Zverev 4-6, 7-6 (7/5), 7-6 (7/4) in the second round at Indian Wells, avenging a devastating loss to the German at Roland Garros last year. Zverev, the world No. 2 who is heading the field of the prestigious ATP Masters event with No. 1 Jannik Sinner serving a three-month drugs ban, is the first Indian Wells men’s top seed to lose his opening match since Andy Murray in 2017. It was a cherished win for Griekspoor, who had lost five straight matches — including four last year — to the German. That included a five-setter
Five-time champion Novak Djokovic on Saturday tumbled out of the Indian Wells ATP Masters, falling in his first match to lucky loser Botic van de Zandschulp as two-time defending champion Carlos Alcaraz advanced. “No excuses for a poor performance,” 24-time Grand Slam champion Djokovic said after 37 unforced errors in a 6-2, 3-6, 6-1 defeat. “It doesn’t feel great when you play this way on the court,” he said. “But congratulations to my opponent — just a bad day in the office, I guess, for me.” Djokovic is just the latest in Van de Zandschulp’s string of superstar victims. He
Paris Saint-Germain on Tuesday held their nerve to beat Liverpool 4-1 on penalties and reach the UEFA Champions League quarter-finals after their tie finished one-apiece on aggregate, while Bayern Munich saw off Bayer 04 Leverkusen to complete a 5-0 win over both legs. Lamine Yamal and Raphinha fired Barcelona into the next round as the Catalans bested SL Benfica 3-1, and Inter booked a last-eight meeting with Bayern by seeing off Feyenoord 2-1. At Anfield, Ousmane Dembele netted the only goal of the night as PSG bounced back from Liverpool’s late winner last week to force the tie to extra-time and penalties. Maligned
The Taoyuan Pauian Pilots last night lost their East Asia Super League (EASL) championship game against Japan’s Hiroshima Dragonflies 72-68. They on Friday secured Taiwan’s first-ever spot in an EASL final with a 71-64 comeback victory over Japan’s Ryukyu Golden Kings. In what the EASL official Web site described as an “upset,” Pilots forward Lu Chun-hsiang on Friday asserted his stardom in Macau by scoring a game-high 24 points, with four players in both teams reaching double figures. The win was also the first time a Taiwanese franchise has defeated a Japanese team in the EASL Final Four. “I was moved
RSS