Australia’s bid to save the five match series was successful as they defeated New Zealand by 64 runs in the third T20I. New Zealand won the toss and put Australia in to bat first. After losing Matthew Wade early in the second over, Australia’s innings was stabilized by the batting of Aron Finch and Josh Philippe. Finch scored 69 of 44 balls and provided a great platform to the middle order batsmen. Glenn Maxwell made the most of this platform given by the captain Finch. He scored 70 of just 31 balls to take Australia’s score to 208-4 at the end of 20 overs.
Australia would have been happy with the kind of performance shown by their batsmen. When New Zealand came on to bat to chase the total of 209 in twenty overs, they had a decent start to the innings but lost too many wickets too early. NZ score was 80-2 at one point in the ninth over, but then the entire middle order collapsed like a pack of cards. NZ eventual score was 144 all out in 17.1 overs. Things started going south for the NZ batsmen when Ashton Agar came on to bowl. He picked up six Australian batsmen and finished things off for the home side.
This victory would give a tremendous boost to the Australian team’s morale. Had they lost this match, they would have lost the series as well. Even after their defeat, NZ lead the 5-match series by 2-1. The next T20I would be played on 5 March, 2021.
Scores in brief:
Australia [20 overs] – 208/4 (Finch 69, Maxwell 70; Ish Sodhi 2-32)
New Zealand [20 overs] – 144/10 (Guptill 43, Conway 38; Ashton Agar 6-30)