The hard-fought series finally comes to an end. Australia has full credit to make the series interesting but at the end couldn’t win the most important match. After two brilliant batting performances, the batsmen failed to fire big time. Scoring just 142/8 in 20 overs, New Zealand chased it down in 15.3 overs to win the match and the series. New Zealand beat Australia by 7 wickets.
Brief Scores:
Australia : 142/8 (20 Overs). Wade 44(29), Finch 36(32), Ish Sodhi 3/24, Boult 2/26.
New Zealand : 143/3 (15.3 Overs). Guptill 71(46), Conway 36(28), Meredith 2/39, Richardson 1/19.
Man of the Match: Martin Guptill
Man of the Series: Ish Sodhi
Sodhi and pacers restrict Australia to a low score
Australia won the toss and chose to bat. All eyes were on the Australian batsmen on how big they could make in this most important match. They lost Philippe 2(8) early but a partnership on 66 runs between Finch 36(32) and Wade 44(29) stabilized things for Australia. Just when they started to look dangerous, Sodhi got the better of Finch. In the next over itself, Boult took the wicket of Maxwell and suddenly NZ were back in the game. Here onwards Australia never looked comfortable as wickets fell in short intervals. Eventually they ended up with just 142 runs on the board. Sodhi continued his form picking 3 wickets, the pace duo got 2 while Chapman went away with 1 wicket to his tally.
Guptill takes NZ past the Aussies
Chases of around 140 runs are always tricky as you feel close to the target but are still too far. NZ demanded a strong opening partnership and they had it. A 100-run partnership between Conway 36(28) and Guptill 71(46) got more than half of their job done. Even though Williamson went on a rare golden duck, a quickfire 34(16) by Philippe ensured there were no more hiccups in the chase. They finished the game with 27 balls remaining winning the series 3-2.
Guptill with another heroic knock was awarded as the Man of the Match. While Ish Sodhi has been an unsung hero of the series quietly taking 13 wickets, was deservingly awarded the Man of the Series title. New Zealand would now must be having a sigh of relief as they were at one point leading 2-0 but Australia proved to be a tough fight at the end.New Zealand beat Australia by 7 wickets .
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