Finn Allen, one of the most destructive openers in the shortest format, showed why he was preferred to Martin Guptill with a tone-setting 42 off 16 after being inserted in. It helped New Zealand to a big 89-run win as the second stage of the T20 World Cup began in dramatic fashion. The Kiwis, who always show up for ICC events, were rank outsiders when the match began. Not without a reason as they had last beaten Australia in Australian conditions in 2011 (15 matches across multiple formats).
Allen, one of the very few openers with a double double (striking over 150 while averaging 25+), went downturn very early in the piece as he took on Mitchell Starc. His thrill every minute 16 ball innings saw five fours and three sixes. At the other end, an unbeaten Devon Conway (92 off 58) carried the bat to take the 2021 finalists to an imposing 200.
The hosts had the firepower in front of a packed Sydney ground but never got going. David Warner lost his bails in a freaky manner and it was a sign of things to come. With both Trent Boult and Tim Southee — New Zealand’s evergreen Men Fridays — keeping a lid on the run-rate, a challenging total quickly became the equivalent of climbing Mount Everest.
Mitchell Santner, an underrated spinner who possesses the rare quality of seldom bowling bad balls, ran through the middle order as he capitalised on a questionable batting display. All said, it was the perfect day for New Zealand as their main batters clicked while their lead bowlers hardly put a foot wrong.
For Australia, though, their NRR suffered a big hit as a result of the heavy defeat (-4.45 for those asking). It leaves them with a small margin for error in the remaining group games, beginning with the one against Sri Lanka on Tuesday.
Brief scores: New Zealand 200/3 in 20 ovs (Allen 42, Conway 92 n.o., Hazlewood 2/41) bt Australia 111 in 17.1 ovs (Maxwell 28, Boult 2/24, Southee 3/6, Santner 3/31). Afghanistan 112 in 19.4 ovs (Ibrahim 32, Ghani 30, Stokes 2/19, Wood 2/23, Curran 5/10) lost to England 113/5 in 18.1 ovs (Livingstone 29).