Australia tour of New Zealand 2021 News

Australia all-rounder Glenn Maxwell was back in form with the bat after he scored a 31-ball 70 during the third T20I against New Zealand in Wellington. Maxwell’s brisk knock included 8 fours and five maximums. One of these sixes ended up breaking a seat in the stands. The seat that was destroyed by Maxwell is now up for auction for charity. After losing the first two encounters of the five-match series, the visiting team showed some mettle in the third clash. Batting first, the Aussies posted 208/4 in 20 overs, courtesy Finch and Maxwell’s batting performance. While Maxwell scored 70, skipper Finch notched up 69 in 44 deliveries. Josh Philippe too chipped in with a 27-ball 43. Later, Ashton Agar rattled the New Zealand batting line up with his spin web after scalped 6 wickets in 4 overs after giving away just 30 runs. For New Zealand, it was just Martin Guptill who scored 43 runs while Devoy Conway got 38 in 27, The Blackcaps still lead the series 2-1. “It is always nice to pick wickets especially when you go wicketless in the first two games. But I was lucky, we had 200 on the board and it makes my job a lot easier, the boys also bowled well upfront. I think in the past it (going wicketless) would have got to me but now I have played enough to move on, take it as a new game and a new chance to do something good here. Once I started tossing the ball up I got something out of it. They (the batsmen) have been amazing. Maxwell was incredible, Finchy is back among the runs and really good signs going ahead in the series,” Agar who adjudged Man of the match said.

The fans have been barred from the final three T20Is between New Zealand and Australia which will be played at Wellington Regional Stadium after a COVID-19 lockdown in Auckland. The third T20I that was earlier scheduled to take place in Auckland was moved to Wellington while the last two matches were also shifted to the same venue from Tauranga. “They’ve made sure that they’ve looked after the players’ mental and physical wellbeing and come to the right decision,” he told reporters on Monday. The Blackcaps lead the series 2-0 so far and need one more victory to take the unassailable lead in the series. Talking about the home support, Australia spinner Ashton Agar said that the crowd’s support does play an important role in boosting the team’s confidence. “A home ground advantage always helps when you’ve got a crowd that’s right behind their home team and that’s how it’s been so far,” he said. “It’s always a fun crowd here in New Zealand, it’s always a great atmosphere, so for them to not have that particularly on a game that the series hinges on could be a massive advantage for us.” The four Auckland based players (Chapman, Guptill, Neesham and Phillips) self-isolating in Wellington have now received negative COVID tests and will be able to train with the team on Tuesday. The third encounter between the two teams will take place on Wednesday. The second match turned out to be a close and high-scoring encounter. New Zealand batting first posted 219/4 in 20 overs riding on Martin Guptill’s 97 while Australia fell short of just 4 runs. Marcus Stoinis scored 78 off 37 but his innings went in vain as the visitors lost the match eventually.

New Zealand held onto their nerves in the wake of brutal counterattacking innings from Marcus Stoinis and Daniel Sams and registered a win by the barest of margin in the second T20 of the series in Dunedin. For the hosts, the heroes were Martin Guptill and James Neesham who provided blitz with the bat in the first innings while the latter came back to leave his mark on the day with the ball and got the better of heroes in the opposition camps in the form of Stoinis and Sams just when the game was hanging on the edge. The Blackcaps now lead the five-match series by 2-0 and the tourists have their task cut out to win all of the last three games of the series to win the trophy back home. Chasing a mammoth target of 220 runs, Australia were off to a better start compared to the last game as both Aron Finch and Matthew Wade put on a decent partnership of 34 runs from three and a half overs. Wade was going berserk from the one end, while Finch’s slump with the bat continued and he could not get going once again. Wade was severe on anything short bowled at him, but the struggle of Finch at the other end forced him to keep going for boundaries almost every ball and he perished in the process. On the other end, Finch’s misery was cut short by Ish Sodhi whose good moments in the game were about to get over towards the end. Josh Phillipe did not waste the opportunity to impress one and all after missing out in the first game, and started timing shots in the same manner he has been doing in the Big Bash League that paved the way for his entry into the Australia T20 team. He hit three sixes in his 32-ball-45, and two out of them were picturesque. Australia must have been disappointed by another low score from Glenn Maxwell and his absence from the middle order in terms of runs derailed the tourists’ effort of chasing down the target of 220 runs. While Ish Sodhi struggled with the onslaught from the Australians, Mitchell Santner owned the stage. He broke the back of the Australian batting order with big wickets of Phillipe, Ashton Agar and Mitchell Marsh in a single over and put a big question mark on the tourists’ spirit in Dunedin. When Marsh walked off the field at the end of the 13th over, Australia were in disarray, needing 107 runs from the last 42 balls and the story seemed to be over for them. However, Stoinis and Sams had other ideas and they started taking the game into the Blackcaps’ camp. They got stuck into Sodhi and Southee and plundered them for 20 runs and 25 runs in the 15th and 16th overs respectively. Stoinis was brutal in his power game and pulled everything that was pitched away from his arc over the leg side fence. Sams did not hold back and match Stoinis shots by shots and the duo started hunting the Kiwis down over by over and the effect of the onslaught was telling on the hosts’ bowling line up. The duo was relentless and did not allow any bowler to get away unscathed from their hammerings and they cut down the improbable task fo 107 runs from 42 balls to 15 runs off the last six balls. The task was not impossible especially the momentum Stoinis and Sams were riding on, but the day belonged to James Neesham who could do no wrong today and he dismissed Sams on a ranked full toss to start the 20th over. He went on to account for Stoinis as well, and Blackcaps could manage to finish the fiery resistance from the Australian to go 2-0 up. Earlier in the day, Finch won the toss and asked the hosts to bat first on a pitch that promised some assistance to seamers with the new ball. Martin Guptill was under pressure coming into this game, but showed no signs of vulnerability and looked in good touch at the start of the innings against his nemesis in the last game-- Daniel Sams. When Jhye Richardson was called up by Finch to challenge Guptill’s footwork in the third over, he was greeted with signature shots as Guptill planted his foot down the pitch of the ball to hit him over the top of his head for a monstrous six. Guptill was up and running but his partner at the other Tim Seiffert could not get going and Australia tasted early success. Finch found Guptill comfortable against pace and brought on Ashton Agar to take the pace off the ball, but Guptill was in a complete unforgiving mood today and his first over yielded 15 runs. Agar’s spinning partner--Adam Zampa was welcomed in a similar fashion by Guptill and two colossal sixes into the car parking outside the stadium to reach fifty in 27 balls were the signs of Guptill’s comeback in top form. Looking at Guptill going for glory at the other end, Williamson too decided to shift gears and they started to despatch Australian bowlers over the park to reach the 100-mark bu the end of the 11th over. Guptill did not let the pressure of nearing a century and kept coming at the bowlers, but ultimately succumbed in the process. His departure from the field did not provide any respite to the tourists as James Neesham took off from the same point where he had left. Both Richardsons-- Jhye and Kane tried their best to bring Australia back in the game on the back of three big wickets of Devon Conway, Glenn Phillips and Mitchell Santner in quick successions, but Australia’s hopes of owning the control of the game were put to rest by Neesham. Australia fought well to challenge New Zealand in pursuit of big runs, but Finch will be realistic to recognise the lack of discipline shown by his bowlers while the top order batsmen including himself have found it tough to get going at top of the order. They need to make amends in the next game otherwise the series will be gone before it finishes and the path of preparation towards the T20 World Cup scheduled to take place in India later this year will hit a major roadblock.

New Zealand defeated Australia by 53 runs in the first game of the five-match T20I series. All eyes were at the big buys from Australia and New Zealand who were specially bought by the Royal Challengers Bangalore. Out of the 22 players on the field, five players will most probably part of the RCB playing XI. However, all of them failed in this game. When New Zealand was put to bat first at the Hagley Oval, RCB men in Adama Zampa, Daniel Sams and Glenn Maxwell couldn’t do much with the ball. While Zampa was economical in the sense that he gave away just 20 runs in three overs, but couldn’t pick any wicket. Sams did pick two wickets but was on the expensive side as he was taken for forty runs in his four overs. While batting both Glen Maxwell (bought for 14.25 crore rupees) and Josh Philippe (retained) couldn’t even get to double-digit. While Philippe was removed by Boult just for two runs, Maxwell was caught at the slip on a Tim Southee outswinger for a solitary run. In bowling too, Maxwell bowled just one over and gave away nine runs. The only other player from RCB involved on the New Zealand side was Kyle Jamieson. Even he was not at his usual best, giving away 32 runs in just three overs and picking just one wicket. Devon Conway, who went unsold in the IPL Mini Auction at a base price of 50 Lakh rupees slammed unbeaten 99 in 59 balls with 10 fours and three sixes to take the New Zealand total to 184-5 in 20 overs. Australia bundled out for 131 as Ish Sodhi, another unsold player at the auction picked up four wickets.

Left-hander Devon Conway finished unbeaten just one run short of a magnificent century but led New Zealand’s comeback in the first T20I of the series against Australia at the Hagley Oval in Christchurch. The hosts were dealt early blows when pacers Jhye Richardson and Daniel Sams routed the Blackcaps’ top order, but Devon Conway stitched valuable partnerships first with Glenn Phillips and James Neesham to power the hosts to 184 runs. Conway was watchful at the start of his innings, but increased his tempo as he got his eye in. He was particularly severe on the eg side and anything that was pitched in his half disappeared over the square leg fence.

Australia white-ball captain Aaron Finch would have relished the prospects of playing in the upcoming edition of the IPL given his lacklustre form in the previous edition, but he is also pragmatic about the lack of opportunity and not surprised at franchises not showing any interest in his service. Notably, Finch had put his base price at Rs 3 crore INR but went unsold in the auction that took place on February 18 in Chennai. However, he is preferring to take the positives out of it as it offers him a window to stay at home after an extended period of time away from playing for Australia and in the IPL last year. "It would've been nice to be playing again, it's an amazing competition to be a part of, but it wasn't unexpected that I didn't get picked up to be honest. I'd prefer to be playing cricket, but a little bit of time at home might not be the worst thing, having quite a full schedule since August when we left for the UK and a few times in quarantine and a lot of times in hubs and bubbles, I think just getting home and recharging the batteries might be nice. I know my wife's definitely looking forward to it,” Finch said. Finch struggled at the top of the order for the Royal Challengers Bangalore in the last IPL where he could muster only 268 runs from 12 innings with an abysmal average-strike rate combination of 22.33 and 112.20. He finished the tournament with a solitary fifty and became a liability for the Virat Kohli-led side before he was axed from the playing XI. He would have hoped to resurrect his form and turn around his numbers in the Big Bash League that followed the limited-overs leg of the series against India, but his numbers sank further. He could not hit even a fifty in the 13 games in the 10th edition of the league and finished with mere 179 runs with a horrible average of 13.77 runs per innings. Now, Finch has stepped up the process to eradicate the obvious flaws such as playing the front foot in his batting in discussion with Andrew McDonald, Australia’s assistant coach. Finch said that he felt his foot movement was making him stuck in the crease and hence the efforts and precise training to make his foot mobile will help him get back among runs once he starts to play again for Australia in the upcoming tour of New Zealand. "I've been working on a few little technical things, trying to get a little bit less weight on my front foot. At times I can be a little bit flat-footed and my feet get planted and then I struggle to move again. I have my initial movement and then I get a little bit stuck. I've talked a lot and worked a fair bit with Andrew McDonald, who I go back to every time things don't seem quite right and he seems to sort it out pretty quick, so it's been nice to have a good chunk of training and focusing on a few little technical changes." Australia are touring New Zealand for a five-match T20 series starting tomorrow, February 22 where the selectors have taken a punt on younger players who have shone brightly in the recently-concluded Big Bash League. The T20 squad has been picked in a clear separation from the Test squad in a clear sign of divergence as Australia are looking to build up a strong squad to win the ICC World T20 due to be held later this year in India.