Australia yesterday completed the highest run chase in Twenty20 history to beat New Zealand by five wickets and maintain their unbeaten record in the tri-series in Auckland, New Zealand.
In a roller-coaster match, the Black Caps set an imposing target of 244 on the back of opener Martin Guptill’s century, but Australia overhauled it with seven balls to spare.
A combination of Eden Park’s short boundaries and a flat pitch produced a batsman’s paradise that frustrated the bowlers of both sides and set records tumbling.
Photo: AFP
Australia’s total of 245-5 exceeded the previous record chase of 244 scored by India against the West Indies in 2016.
The unlucky Guptill also became international Twenty20’s highest run scorer after making 105 off 54 balls.
It took his international Twenty20 career total to 2,188 runs, surpassing compatriot Brendon McCullum’s 2,140, with India’s Virat Kohli the next-highest on the all-time list with 1,956.
Photo: AFP
Guptill’s 49-ball century was New Zealand’s fastest Twenty20 ton and the team total of 243 equaled the highest posted by the Black Caps.
The match also had its share of bizarre moments, including New Zealand batsman Mark Chapman’s dismissal, when a fizzing Billy Stanlake ball knocked off his helmet and sent it rolling into the stumps.
The umpires also ordered Black Caps seamer Ben Wheeler out of the attack after two high no-balls, with the unfortunate bowler conceding 64 runs off 3.1 overs.
Australia have already reached the series final in Auckland on Wednesday, with four wins from four in the preliminary matches.
New Zealand’s hopes of reaching the decider now rest on their meeting with England in Hamilton, New Zealand, tomorrow.
Guptill plundered nine sixes and six fours after New Zealand won the toss and elected to bat, supported by fellow opener Colin Munro, who made 76 off 33 balls.
Australia made a flying start in reply, with openers David Warner and D’Arcy Short racing to 51 without loss after four overs.
Warner’s half-century came off just 20 balls and the partnership reached 121 before spinner Ish Sodhi bowled the Australia captain for 59.
His departure did not slow down Short, who anchored the innings with 76 from 44 to earn the man-of-the-match award.
He said Australia were not overawed chasing such a large total.
“We have the firepower to do it, we knew that,” Short said. “We knew we had to go out hard and get ourselves a start, and everyone had to get going when they came in.”
New Zealand’s bowlers produced a nervy display that did not help their cause, conceding 18 wides, but captain Kane Williamson refused to be too critical of his attack after a run-fest that featured 32 sixes over both innings.
Williamson said such a high-scoring game was bound to happen at Eden Park when conditions were right and there was little his players could do to stem the flow of boundaries.
“Even at times when we did execute things, [the ball] would go 20 rows back [into the stands] and that makes things quite tough,” Williamson said.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier