Finn rocks crowded house in NZ victory

In a trans-tasman World Cup final in Australia seven years ago, Mitchell Starc made the defining statement against New Zealand’s explosive opener with the third ball.

In the opening game of the Twenty20 World Cup in Australia on Saturday night, New Zealand’s explosive opener made the defining statement against Mitchell Starc with the second ball.

Young Black Caps opener Finn Allen set the visitors up for an upset victory over the hosts at the Sydney Cricket Ground in the first game of the Super 12s – and put New Zealand instantly in pole position to race into the semifinals.

Allen hammered the second ball Starc delivered over the midon fielder to the boundary, then thumped the next one harder, higher and faster into the stands.

Another four off the fifth ball rocked the hosts back on their heels, and they never recovered as the Black Caps won by 89 runs to rapidly force the Cup holders into a sudden-death situation after just 37.1 overs of eye-popping action.

It wasn’t as big of an occasion as the 2015 one-day World Cup final at the MCG, when Black Caps skipper Brendon Mccullum was bowled third ball charging at Starc in the opening over in what was ultimately a comfortable triumph by the hosts.

But it did ensure Kane Williamson’s men have a great chance of making the playoff stage of yet another world championship.

The Australian fans hadn’t seen such a savage display of boundary hitting like Allen’s since Lance Cairns at the MCG in 1981, and the crowded house at the SCG must have wanted to claim another Finn as their own.

But Cairns’ six sixes were achieved when the game was already lost, and the home supporters could safely enjoy their heroes being tonked around the park by a cheeky Kiwi.

On Saturday evening, Allen’s jaw-dropping 42 changed the pretournament tone within just 16 balls.

He was given a life when dropped by Adam Zampa when on 19 off the second ball of the third over bowled by Pat Cummins – a difficult chance but one you’d expect the champion side to grab.

In contrast, New Zealand’s brilliance in the field was in complete contrast to their ragged displays during the tri-series in Christchurch earlier this month while their nine-wicket defeat in a warmup game to South Africa last week clearly held all the significance of . . . well, a warm-up game.

Australia appeared to have got the jump on the visitors when the coin fell in their favour and captain Aaron Finch chose to bowl, knowing any interruption from predicted rain would be easier to calculate its impact when chasing with the bat.

But the only shower in evidence were the defending champions in comparison to the side they beat in last year’s final.

If Allen was the rock star frontman hogging the spotlight, Devon Conway was the Richards to his Jagger.

Allen danced and belted out the hits but Conway, currently New Zealand’s best batter, picked out a rolling rhythm and interspersed it with a string of tasty licks in making his unbeaten 92 from a mere 58 deliveries.

New Zealand still have Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, England and Ireland to play in their group and given the amount of upsets witnessed in a week, there’s no guarantee of at least three more wins to make the last four.

But they would have slept far more soundly overnight than Australia’s players.