Australia produced an all-round performance on Monday night to defeat New Zealand by three wickets in their warmup match for the upcoming ICC T20 World Cup 2021 played at the Tolerance Oval in Abu Dhabi. Australia will now face the 2007 T20 World Cup winners in India in the second and final warmup match on October 20, ahead of the main tournament which starts on October 24.
Australia made 159/7 from 19.5 overs in reply to New Zealand’s first innings total of 158/7. Steve Smith top scored with 35 whereas there were other contributing batsmen in Aaron Finch (24), Mitchell Marsh (24), Marcus Stoinis (28), Ashton Agar (23) and Mitchell Starc (13 not out).
For New Zealand, the left-arm spinner Mitchell Santner was impressive as he returned with figures of 4-0-22-3 whereas their lead fast bowler Trent Boult sounded warning for other teams with a strong spell of 3-0-13-2. The other bowlers in Tim Southee and Kyle Jamieson took one wicket each for New Zealand, who used seven different bowling options in the practice match.
New Zealand batsmen had a good outing on Monday night at the Tolerance Oval with Martin Guptill scoring 30 from 20 balls with four boundaries and a six and Daryl Mitchell making 33 from 22 balls with as many boundaries and sixes. New Zealand captain Kane Williamson made 37 from 30 balls with the help of five boundaries before he was cleaned up by Australia’s spinner Zampa.
While Devin Conway (12) and Glenn Phillips (2) did not have a successful time in the middle out with the bat, James Neesham warmed up for the tournament with an 18-ball 31 with the help of three fours and two sixes. For Australia, Mitchell Starc took 1/30 from his four overs whereas Kane Richardson was very impressive. Richardson returned with figures of 4-0-24-3 while Ashton Agar took 1/34. Zampa was once again a key performer with the ball for Australia in the contest of the shortest format, claiming 2/17 from his four overs.
