Australia have come away from their first ODI with New Zealand having recorded a dominant victory, the better team by 68 runs on Sunday night.
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Final score
Australia 8/324
New Zealand 256
It is time to change out of the whites and into the coloured uniforms, as Australia get set to host their Trans-Tasman rivals New Zealand in a three-game series for the Chappell-Hadlee Trophy. Join The Roar for live scores and a blog of the match from 2:20pm (AEDT).
After losing seven games consecutive games over two different formats to the South Africans – before picking up a consolation victory in the day-night Test in Adelaide – Australia will welcome the opportunity to face a different opponent.
New Zealand arrive on Australia’s shores fresh from a 2-0 home victory against Pakistan, however they come missing a few key contributors.
Star batsman Ross Taylor is absent due to recent eye surgery whilst big hitting all-rounder Corey Anderson and pacemen Adam Milne and Mitchell McClenaghan are all out injured.
The injuries to Taylor and Anderson will test the Kiwis’ batting depth while also adding to the already heavy batting loads for opener Martin Guptill and skipper Kane Williamson.
Conversely the Australians enter the contest at full strength and after a Test series in which batting was a weakness, the Aussies should boast a deep and dangerous batting line up in the shorter format.
With Aaron Finch and George Bailey shoring up the top order and the likes of Maxwell and Faulkner adding some punch to the lower order the Aussies should be posting some healthy totals in this series.
Australia will also have use of their preferred pace attack of Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins for the first time in over a year. The damaging but injury prone quick returns to the national spotlight after last donning the canary yellow way back in September 2015 against England.
Despite not playing Shield cricket in nearly six years, there are rumblings that a dominant showing against the Black Caps could vault Cummins back into Test calculations as soon the upcoming Pakistan series.
Prediction
A rematch of the 2015 World Cup finalists should hold plenty of intrigue for cricket fans with the teams being fairly evenly matched.
But on a SCG pitch that is usually good for batting, look for the Aussies to break out of their 5-loss slump and put on a strong display of limited overs cricket against a Kiwi side missing a few key weapons.
Australia to cruise to victory.
Join The Roar for live scores and a blog of the match from 2:20pm (AEDT).
Alex L
Roar Rookie
Alcohol + text = sarcasm goes out the window.
Perry Bridge
Guest
Crap attendance in Sydney town. A team full of NSW players and only low 20k turn up on a Sunday. What? Has there been too much cricket already for them?? Irony of course - game at MCG this Friday - were it not for junior cricket on Friday night then I'd be looking at getting to the night session.
Jason Cave
Guest
So if New Zealand was to be given two franchises (one for the North Island ie Auckland, and one for the South ie Christchurch) then a likely rivalry round of the T20 Big Bash League would be like this: FRIDAY Auckland v Christchurch (Eden Park, 5:30pm AEDST/7:30pm NZ) Sydney Sixers v Sydney Thunder (SCG 7:30pm AEDST) SATURDAY Melbourne Stars v Melbourne Renegades (MCG 7:30pm) SUNDAY Hobart v Brisbane Adelaide v Perth
Basil
Guest
So defensive. Im not against Cummins. Just saying we can be too harsh on others that aren't our favourites.
doogs
Guest
Maybe he has lost inches around the hips and is showing the bowler
doogs
Guest
I really like Faulkner. I love having in the team, but he is actually out of form recently and batsman are starting to pick his slower ball. There was an article about it in the paper today.
doogs
Guest
They made 325 and won convincingly. Maybe you can add a new comment. A positive one
doogs
Guest
They won convincingly
doogs
Guest
I like the idea
doogs
Guest
He was and is a fantastic one day batsman. Beautiful innings
doogs
Guest
haha Nice one
doogs
Guest
No I think his points were all good Basil
doogs
Guest
Just give him a bit of time. He did not look injured which is a relief
doogs
Guest
Yes I think the sarcasm was fairly obvious to most lol
Mattw
Guest
Thanks digger, great game, mostly just your fielding that game mate, still managed to have me rather worried at several points there. Always gonna be tough when you give a player like smith a life. Still struck it as well as I have ever seen him in an ODI in some time. Guptill though struck them cleaner, just couldn't stay as deep.
Kishan Badrinath
Roar Guru
A transcendent knock from Smith backed up by handy knocks from Head and Wade provided an terrific total for the stacked Aussie pace attack to bowl at. Although Cummins and Zampa were expensive, the other Aussie bowlers have ensured they leave Sydney with a 1-0 lead in the Chappell-Hadlee trophy. That's all for now thankyou for joining the Roar for the first match of this ODI series and until next time goodnight.
Mattw
Guest
Whoooosh, sailing miles overhead the great plane sarcasm bypasses another discerning individual.
Kishan Badrinath
Roar Guru
Shock horror Steve Smith is the Man of the Match, who'd have thunk it?
Kishan Badrinath
Roar Guru
A comfortable win for Australia in the end, led by a dominant display from Smith with the bat and also in the field. NZ were on top of Australia early in the match and had the opportunity to restrict Australia to a score under 250 but poor bowling and sloppy fielding took the game away from the Kiwis. A terrific knock from Guptill and some support from Neesham and Munro would have briefly had the black caps thinking of an upset, but some good pace bowling from Hazlewood, Marsh and Starc ensured the chase never really took off.
Alex L
Roar Rookie
Smith, Hazlewood, and even Marsh all performed better...