A “clinical” Australia yesterday beat New Zealand by 27 runs in the rain-shortened third Twenty20 in Auckland to complete a clean sweep of the series.
Responding to Australia’s 118-4 from 10.4 overs, New Zealand scored 98-3, falling short of a target adjusted to 126 off 10 overs under the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern method.
The required run-rate grew quickly after the home side lost two quick wickets before Glenn Phillips posted their top score for the second straight game, finishing on 40 not out off 24 balls.
Photo: AFP
Australian pace bowler Spencer Johnson impressed in his first appearance of the series taking 1-10 off his two overs.
Three rain stoppages curtailed Australia’s innings after they were asked to bat first at Eden Park.
Opener Travis Head top-scored with 33 off 30 balls, but the most punishing batting was player-of-the-match Matthew Short’s 27 off 11 balls and Glenn Maxwell’s 20 off nine.
Australia dominated the series, winning the opener by six wickets in Wellington on Wednesday, followed by a 72-run victory in game two in Auckland on Friday.
Wicketkeeper Matthew Wade, promoted to Australian captain after Mitch Marsh was rested for the final game, said the series was ideal preparation ahead of the ICC T20 World Cup in June.
“We wanted to have a look at the depth in our squad and we were lucky enough to do that today with Spencer and Matty Short,” Wade said. “Our bowlers were unbelievable today, the way they came out and executed. It was as clinical a bowling effort as I’ve seen from an Australian outfit.”
“For Matthew Short to come out and bat the way he did is really exciting for the future,” he added.
New Zealand were not helped by injuries, which ruled out key batsmen Daryl Mitchell, Rachin Ravindra and Devon Conway at different stages of the series, while veteran Kane Williamson was absent because of the birth of his child.
New Zealand captain Mitchell Santner would not use that as an excuse, saying Australia were simply too good.
“They’re obviously a quality side,” Santner said. “The first game was a close one, but we were obviously outplayed in the last two.”
The first Test of a two-match series between the teams starts in Wellington on Thursday.
The qualifying round of the World Baseball Classic (WBC) is to be held at the Taipei Dome between Feb. 21 and 25, Major League Baseball (MLB) announced today. Taiwan’s group also includes Spain, Nicaragua and South Africa, with two of the four teams advancing onto the 2026 WBC. Taiwan, currently ranked second in the world in the World Baseball Softball Confederation rankings, are favorites to come out of the group, the MLB said in an article announcing the matchups. Last year, Taiwan finished in a five-way tie in their group with two wins and two losses, but finished last on tiebreakers after giving
North Korea’s FIFA Under-17 Women’s World Cup-winning team on Saturday received a heroes’ welcome back in the capital, Pyongyang, with hundreds of people on the streets to celebrate their success. They had defeated Spain on penalties after a 1-1 draw in the U17 World Cup final in the Dominican Republic on Nov. 3. It was the second global title in two months for secretive North Korea — largely closed off to the outside world; they also lifted the FIFA U20 Women’s World Cup in September. Officials and players’ families gathered at Pyongyang International Airport to wave flowers and North Korea flags as the
For King Faisal, a 20-year-old winger from Ghana, the invitation to move to Brazil to play soccer “was a dream.” “I believed when I came here, it would help me change the life of my family and many other people,” he said in Sao Paulo. For the past year and a half, he has been playing on the under-20s squad for Sao Paulo FC, one of South America’s most prominent clubs. He and a small number of other Africans are tearing across pitches in a country known as the biggest producer and exporter of soccer stars in the world, from Pele to Neymar. For
Coco Gauff of the US on Friday defeated top-ranked Aryna Sabalenka 7-6 (7/4), 6-3 to set up a showdown with Olympic champion Zheng Qinwen in the final of the WTA Finals, while in the doubles, Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching was eliminated. Gauff generated six break points to Belarusian Sabalenka’s four and built on early momentum in the opening set’s tiebreak that she carried through to the second set. She is the youngest player at 20 to make the final at the WTA Finals since Denmark’s Caroline Wozniacki in 2010. Zheng earlier defeated Wimbledon champion Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic 6-3, 7-5 to book
RSS