Australia have remained unbeaten in this year's T20 tri-series tournament, beating New Zealand by 19 runs in a rain-affected final.
With New Zealand batting first last week against Australia at Eden Park and posting 243 from their 20 overs, another big innings was predicted as the Black Caps elected to bat when they won the toss.
With David Warner identifying early wickets as the key to minimising a repeat of last week, the Black Caps raced off to 43 off the first four overs. However, that was as good as it got as Australia's bowling brigade bowled a devastating 10-over spell.
Ashton Agar took three wickets in eight balls while pace duo Andrew Tye (2-30) and Kane Richardson (2-30) raked havoc. All-rounder Marcus Stoinis chipped in with 1-23 as New Zealand lost 8-62. With the seamers only going for 7.5 an over, which was way below what they were going for in last week’s game at Eden Park, Ross Taylor and Ish Sodhi managed to put on a 9th wicket, 38-run partnership, to get New Zealand to an even 150, which is a poor result considering the efforts shown last week.
The only downfall of the bowling and fielding effort from the Aussie's was the injury to Chris Lynn. Lynn who has had a left shoulder injury this summer, which caused him to miss majority of the Big Bash, dived for a ball in the field, where he clutched at his right arm immediately after the dive, injuring his good shoulder.
It appeared that Lynn dislocated his shoulder. He was sent to the hospital for scans and later returned to the ground with his arm in a sling.
David Warner and D'arcy Short got the innings off to fast start, putting on an rain interrupted opening wicket partnership of 72. With Short (50) and Warner (75) falling within an over of each other, Aaron Finch and Glenn Maxwell safely guided Australia to victory. Australia reached 3-121 off 14.4 overs as they achieved the victory via the Duckworth Lewis Stern System.
Ashton Agar was handed the Man of the Match trophy for his bowling efforts of 3-27 off four overs with an economy of only 6.75 an over.
Australia are now ranked 2nd in the T20 rankings, after being ranked 7th before the tournament begun. Australia are on 125.65 points, 0.19 behind no.1 ranked Pakistan on 125.84.
