New Zealand vs Australia 1st T20, Match Highlights: Conway’s invincible inning helps the Kiwis to defeat the Aussies

New Zealand and Australia faced off in the first T20 match of the series on Monday night, February 22 at the Hagley Oval Stadium (Christchurch). Kiwi batsman Devon Conway’s unbeaten innings of 99 off 59 balls gave New Zealand a huge 53-run victory over Australia.

Australian captain Aaron Finch decided to field after winning the toss and sent New Zealand to bat first.

Kiwi opener Martin Guptill lost his wicket without scoring a run in the third ball of the first over. In the 70th innings of his International Twenty20, Guptill made his first duck. The Aussie bowlers bowled brilliantly and the hosts were at a stake losing 3 wickets to score only 19 runs in the first four overs. Devon Conway pulled the team from there. Glenn Phillips and James Neesham played two important innings of 30 and 26 runs respectively. Devon Conway put on 74 for the fourth wicket with Glenn Phillips. When Glenn Phillips got out, Conway led the way with Jimmy Neesham.

He was unbeaten on 87 before the last over that was bowled by Australian fast bowler Kane Richardson. After taking 1 run in the first ball, Conway took 11 runs in the fourth and fifth balls with a six and a four. He could not take 2 runs sending the ball back to the fielder as he hit hard on the last ball. He had to be satisfied with 1 run & had to return with the regret of not getting a century. Conway hit 3 sixes and 10 fours. The hosts lost five wickets in 20 overs and finished their innings with 184 runs. Jhye Richardson (2-31, 4 overs) and Daniel Sams (2-40, 4 overs) took two wickets each for Australia.

In the 16-years history of the International Twenty20, three batsmen have left the field unbeaten on 99 before Conway. Mohammad Hafeez of Pakistan and Dawid Malan of England had to face the same misfortune last year after Luke Wright of England in 2012. Conway became the first batsman in the history of New Zealand to pick up fifty in five consecutive matches in the T20 edition both in international and domestic.

In the first two overs of the chase, Australia lost Finch and the debutant Josh Philippe. Matthew Wade and Glenn Maxwell also returned in five overs and the visiting team lost the road to victory. The team’s score at that time was 19 for 4. Mitchell Marsh and Marcus Stoinis combined for a 37-run stand off 28 balls, but Stoinis was dismissed while the team total was 56 runs. Marsh was fighting on one side & was dismissed for 45 runs. Ashton Agar made 23 off 13 balls. After losing all the wickets in 17.3 overs, the visitors were bowled out for 131 runs. Ish Sodhi (4-28, 4 overs), Tim Southee (2-10, 3 overs), and Trent Boult (2-22, 3 overs) have taken wickets for New Zealand.

New Zealand took a 1-0 lead after winning the first match of the five-match T20 series. The second match will be played on February 25 at the University of Otago Oval, (Dunedin).

Playing XIs:

New Zealand: Martin Guptill, Kane Williamson (c), Glenn Phillips, James Neesham, Tim Seifert (wk), Devon Conway, Mitchell Santner, Tim Southee, Trent Boult, Kyle Jamieson, Ish Sodhi

Australia: Aaron Finch (c), Josh Philippe, Marcus Stoinis, Mitchell Marsh, Matthew Wade (wk), Glenn Maxwell, Daniel Sams, Jhye Richardson, Adam Zampa, Ashton Agar, Kane Richardson

Scoreboard:

New Zealand – 184/5 (20)

Fall of wickets: 1-0 (Guptill, 0.3 over), 2-11 (Seifert, 2.2 over), 3-19 (Williamson, 3.6 over), 4-93 (Phillips, 12.2 over), 5-140 (Neesham, 16.5 over)

Australia – 131/10 (17.3)

Fall of wickets: 1-3 (Aaron Finch, 0.5 over), 2-8 (Philippe, 1.5 over), 3-16 (Wade, 3.2 over), 4-19 (Maxwell, 4.2 over), 5-56 (Stoinis, 8.5 over), 6-98 (Marsh, 12.5 over), 7-99 (Sams, 13.2 over), 8-99 (Agar, 13.4 over), 9-108 (Richardson, 15.2 over), 10-131 (Richardson, 17.3 over)

Result – New Zealand won by 53 runs

Player of the Match – Devon Conway

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