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Australia completed a dominant run in the T20 tri-series yesterday by cruising to victory over New Zealand in the final in Auckland.
Leading into this series, there was doom and gloom hanging over the Australian limited overs set-up, with the ODI side having just been pummelled 4-1 at home by England and the T20 side ranked a lowly seventh in the world.
All of that negativity quickly melted away as the Aussies recorded five straight. Their wins were all comfortable in this series, meaning they can grab the number one ranking next week if other results fall their way.
Once again yesterday it was a balanced performance, as the Australians bowled impressively and then finished the job with the blade.
They did well to keep the Kiwis to a well-below-par of 9-150 and then never looked like losing after D’Arcy Short (50 from 30 balls) and David Warner (25 from 23 balls) put on a stand of 72 in eight overs. A subsequent mini-collapse of 3-12 gave New Zealand some hope, although they weren’t helped by the weather, with rain leaving the outfield moist and the ball damp.
Rain forced an early end to the match, with Australia winning via the Duckworth-Lewis system after making their way to 3-121 from 14.4 overs.
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Australia were again clinical with the ball, restricting a dangerous opposition batting line-up on this small ground.
New Zealand got off to a booming start thanks to their destructive opening pair of Martin Guptill and Colin Munro. At 0-48 after 4.2 overs it looked as though Australia might again be tasked with hunting a mammoth score, following on from their record chase of 244 in their previous match against the Kiwis.
But both of those men were dismissed in quick succession by the new-ball duo of Billy Stanlake and Kane Richardson – who would both be well back in the pecking order if a full complement of players were available, behind the likes of Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins, Nathan Coulter-Nile and Jason Behrendorff.
Stanlake and Richardson have made the most of their opportunities in this series, each taking eight wickets at an average of 20.
The towering, 204cm Stanlake has leaned heavily on his intimidating pace and bounce, pushing the speed gun up to 150kmh and getting the ball to leap off the pitch.
While he’s had a good series overall, Stanlake will need become a more-rounded bowler if he’s to be consistently effective.
Billy Stanlake of Australia celebrates. (Photo by Mark Kolbe/Getty Images)
Richardson, meanwhile, does not have the same explosive attributes as Stanlake and so has had to execute more subtle skills. He has continually varied his deliveries, changing up not just his pace but also his length and angles on the crease.
The South Australian’s slower balls have earned him a clutch of wickets in this series, including the huge wicket yesterday of Munro.
With both opening batsmen gone, in-form spinner Ashton Agar took control of the match.
The 24-year-old was the outstanding bowler of this series, with seven wickets at 16, while conceding a miserly 6.38 runs per over. In choking the run rate, Agar often earned breakthroughs for his bowling colleagues. Yesterday he was able to cash in, taking 3-27 from his four overs, with all his wickets being top-six batsmen.
Agar’s accuracy was remarkabe throughout this series which, combined with his crafty changes in flight and pace, made him extremely difficult to dispatch.
Next-most economical in the series was batting all-rounder Marcus Stoinis, who had a miserly economy rate of seven runs per over thanks to his mix of cutters, slower balls, yorkers, and his surprisingly-quick bouncer.
With Andrew Tye the leading wicket-taker for the series, with ten wickets at 17, Australia got a fantastic spread of contributions with the ball.
For the first time in a long time, Australia’s T20 team looks in great shape.