Queensland
Australian bowling attack on Thursday made a mess of New Zealand batting attack during second One Day International (ODI) to defend a low total of 195, potentially having a lead of 2-0 in the series. New Zealand skipper was the lucky guy at toss as he decided to bowl first at Queensland Park. None of the Ausie batsmen was able to play a solid innings, except Steve Smith, who scored mature 61. Mitchel Stark provided Australia something to bowl at the back end, scoring 38 of 45.
Trent Bolt and Matte Henry had the better of Australian batting, and both took 4 and 3 wickets respectively. Tim Southee and Mitchel Santner shared a wicket each.
In reply, the Kiwis were miserable with the bat. Australians bowled them out for 82, as no New Zealand batter could cross twenty runs mark. Captain Kane Williamson remained top scorer for his team as he scored 17 runs. Leggie Adam Zampa was the top wicket taker during this dramatic run chase as he picked up 5-35 from his 9 overs.
“Obviously not our best day with the bat. A number of soft dismissals. Australia were brilliant with the ball and gave nothing away,” Williamson said at the award ceremony. “Fair play to Australia, we didn’t apply ourselves. Everybody makes their own decisions but we have to be better at adapting to these conditions. You have to graft and build partnerships. We couldn’t do it like Australia did. We need to be a lot better than that. We will have a new surface in the next game,” he added.
“It has been hard. The first 40 overs of our batting was incredibly difficult before the tail showed us how it needed to be done. Excellent innings from Steve Smith. We knew we had a target to defend, and we had to be disciplined with the ball. Starc struck early and Sean Abbott was superb,” said Ausie skipper Aron Finch.
“The wicket started to slow up and became lower. As the pressure built, the asking rate got to five an over. Zampa got wickets, but it was set up by the seamers. We knew the pitch would deterioare and become slower. Although we have been five down early, we got to a good total in both the games. We feel that we can be aggressive and attacking. It is how we want to play our cricket going forward,” he said.
