New Zealand 200 for 3 (Conway 92*, Allen 42) beat Australia (Maxwell 28, Southee 3-6, Santner 3-31) by 89 runs
Ten years can be a good time to wait for some things – inspiration, lifetime service awards, the right blend of salt and pepper in your hair – but not a win. New Zealand last beat Australia in Australia in December 2011. They’ve finally followed it up, 15 matches later, with a performance that maybe makes it all worth it.
It began like it almost always does in the first over. It ended here too. Just like in that game.
Mitchell Starc once broke New Zealand with the third ball he bowled. Here he was sent packing into the crowd beyond the straight boundary.
Allen went for the same shot Brendon McCullum did all those years ago. Minus all the hurtling down the track. Turns out, having a stable base, and presenting a straight bat can be fun too.
New Zealand ransacked 14 runs off the first six balls they faced. Not since the third season of Game of Thrones has a man named Starc been taken down with such ferocity.
How it ended
Allen fell in the fourth over, but New Zealand already had 56 runs on the board. That gave them so much cushion that Kane Williamson could come in, struggle, look short of the answers everyone wants him to find and still end up on the winning side. The New Zealand captain’s run-a-ball 23 wasn’t the story on Saturday but it may be one later on in the tournament.
Conway is owed some credit for things turning out this way. Unlike most left-handers, he looks for his boundaries on the off side, where he found 58 of his runs at a strike rate of 187. He’s also better against spin than he is against pace. So when Australia realised they had to slow things down, they fell into his trap. Adam Zampa went for 39 runs in his four overs tonight. Conway clattered 32 of them, including two sixes.