Warner dominates – again
Tearing in from the Melbourne Cricket Ground boundary, Henry Nicholls dived, slid and got a fingertip to the ball.
It hit the turf, and Australian run machine David Warner was away and racing.
Nicholls had already held two catches and this wasn’t a terrible miss, but it showed again how crucial half chances were for New Zealand in this Chappell-Hadlee Trophy series.
Warner was on 18, Australia 46-2 in the 13th over and trap had been set. In his second one-day international, Lockie Ferguson dug it in and Warner took him on, but the ball didn’t quite fly far enough into Nicholls’ outstretched hands.
Warner went on to 156 before being run out off the last ball of the innings as Australia set the Black Caps 265 for victory in the dead rubber game of this three-match series. Aside from that half chance he was utterly dominant on a sluggish drop-in pitch, facing 128 balls and cracking 13 fours and four sixes in their total of 264-8.
It was Warner’s seventh ODI century of the year, and his fourth in six innings as he backed up his Canberra ton that set up a big Australian victory.
Only Sachin Tendulkar, with nine in 1998, scored more ODI centuries in a calendar year as Warner drew level with Sourav Ganguly’s seven in 2000.
Even more remarkably, it was Warner’s first international century at the great ground.
In eight previous ODI knocks, nine in tests and five in T20 internationals he hadn’t raised his bat and leapt jubilantly in the air on the MCG.
In terms of the three-match series the horse had bolted with the trophy, but it seemed New Zealand’s fortunes had turned.
They lost the toss but bowled with intensity and to a plan with smart field settings from skipper Kane Williamson. They had the hosts 73-4 and teetering in the 19th over. Captain Steve Smith was removed without scoring in a brilliant tactical move, with Nicholls stationed at backward square leg and Trent Boult (3-49) angling one in from around the wicket that held up just enough in the surface.
George Bailey with his awkward stance looked scratchy again as Williamson packed the leg side to Boult and they squeezed the run rate.
When Colin de Grandhomme struck twice in three balls – the second when Mitchell Marsh chopped onto the stumps via his boot – it looked the Black Caps’ day.
It was similar in Sydney on game one, but the hosts got away again largely thanks to Warner. When New Zealand were poised to take a stranglehold, Australia wriggled free.
New Zealand’s fielding was patchy again, an irksome habit in this series and one that cost them dearly. Throws were awry and they couldn’t hit the stumps directly, even captain Williamson culpable from mid-off with Travis Head stranded on 36. The one exception came from the last ball when Boult caught Warner short to stop the opener becoming the second Australian to carry his bat in an ODI after Damien Martyn at Auckland’s Eden Park in 2000.
Warner and Head added 105 for the fifth wicket and the rebuild was nearly complete.
New Zealand were a bowler down when Jimmy Neesham was ruled out of the match due to swelling on his right arm that was struck a nasty blow by a Mitchell Starc bouncer in Canberra.
It was a blow for the Black Caps to lose their in-form batsman coming off a 74 in game two. He was scratched on match morning as he couldn’t grip the bat properly with his right hand, giving Nicholls his first run of the series.
Ferguson was recalled for Matt Henry and started very well, at a good clip and whistling one or two past Warner’s bat. Sadly for the New Zealanders no edges connected.
Boult was the pick, again, but with Neesham absent Williamson summoned himself and Colin Munro to the bowling crease. Munro was slammed for successive sixes by Warner as he filled a gap near the end. Boult snuck one through Matthew Wade’s defence in the 44th over, the ball rolled onto the stumps but the bails didn’t fall. It summed up an innings where New Zealand could have really seized control but for a matter of a few centimetres.