World Twenty20: New Zealand beat Australia to continue winning start
New Zealand made it two wins from two in their World Twenty20 Super 10 campaign with an eight-run victory over arch rivals Australia in Dharamsala.
The Black Caps’ spinners proved crucial with nine wickets in the opening Group 2 victory against hosts India, but it was the death bowling of Mitchell McClenaghan (3-17) – in for Nathan McCullum – and Corey Anderson (2-29) that secured a first T20 victory over Australia at the sixth attempt.
Australia would have felt comfortable chasing 143 despite leaving Aaron Finch out of the line-up, but a late batting collapse which saw them lose five wickets for just 32 runs proved decisive, consigning them to defeat in their first outing at the competition as they stumbled to 134-9 at the close.
New Zealand made an emphatic start to proceedings, Martin Guptill (39) knocking Ashton Agar (0-18) for three maximums in the left-armer’s only over as he and Kane Williamson (24) put on 58 runs in the powerplay.
Australia soon made the breakthrough, though, Guptill holing out at long-on off James Faulkner (2-18), with Glenn Maxwell (2-18) claiming the scalp of Williamson in the next over.
The Black Caps struggled for fluency following the loss of their opening pair and wickets fell regularly, but Grant Elliott’s unbeaten 27 off 20 deliveries helped them to a reasonable 142-8.
Usman Khawaja (38 off 27) got Australia’s chase off to a promising start with five fours in the opening three overs, but they suffered a blow with the losses of Shane Watson (13) and captain Steve Smith (6) to McClenaghan and Mitchell Santner (2-30), the latter again impressing after taking four wickets against India.
Maxwell (22) and Mitchell Marsh (24) helped keep Australia on track, as they reached 100-4 with five overs remaining.
But Maxwell falling to Ish Sodhi (1-14) triggered a collapse low down the order and they were left needing 22 runs from the final two overs.
They had no answer for McClenaghan, who dismissed Marsh and Agar (9) when a pair of slower deliveries were misread by the batsman, and, despite being knocked for six by Peter Nevill (7 not out), Anderson removed Faulkner (2) and Nathan Coulter-Nile (1) as Australia fell nine runs short of their target.
