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12th over: New Zealand 112-1 (Conway 48, Williamson 21) Starc continues to attack as the floodlights take full effect and it’s an excellent over full of pace and swing, keeping the Black Caps honest and threatening strains with each delivery. This was the first time the ball looked over the bat tonight with the length deliveries coming off the pitch hard. Williamson is really chewing for a while now, he needs motor.
11th over: New Zealand 109-1 (Conway 46, Williamson 20) Immediately after the mid-innings cup break, Williamson takes a Stoinis delivery to leg over the square-leg fence in a statement of intent. The Australian all-rounder mixes up the rest of his over and the variability makes it difficult for him to line up and despite plenty of aggression, the Kiwis have to settle for ones and twos.
Still dry as we hit the 7pm mark when it was raining.
10th over: New Zealand 97-1 (Conway 42, Williamson 12) Starc returns after his wild opener, and concedes no boundaries. He almost does it for Conway with a heat-seeking trademark finger crusher, but the jobber survives. At half-off, New Zealand are well set for a healthy total, but they need to be careful not to lose too much momentum.
9th over: New Zealand 90-1 (Conway 37, Williamson 10) Zampa continues and his first four deliveries will go for just three runs as this partnership comes to a stalemate, only for Conway to take the lead and hammer some six beautiful and long. Zampa follows up with one that just cuts the pad before hitting with Conway pressing forward. He appeals with gusto, to no avail, but Finch has his say! Throwing in line… hit in line… bouncing! Conway survives, but it was a narrow escape.
New Zealand must be careful about sleepwalking through these early middle steps. They have a chance to post a huge total, but combining Williamson and Conway could see a lull. They need to keep their foot on the gas, especially against the fifth bowler. #T20WorldCup
— Freddie Wilde (@fwildecricket) October 22, 2022
8th over: New Zealand 81-1 (Conway 30, Williamson 8) Zampa’s big mate Stoinis bowls again as the weather radar shows rain clouds rolling into Sydney city. Conway and Williamson are happy to try one-twos with the latter (eight from 12) yet to find his timing, especially for off-pace deliveries. I wonder if New Zealand might reflect later that another pointer might have been the order to replace Finn to maintain ascendancy.
7th over: New Zealand 74-1 (Conway 26, Williamson 6) As the field spreads, Conway welcomes Adam Zampa into the attack with a sumptuous cover for four. The left-right partnership is then happy to dish out singles to keep the score moving.
New Zealand were 57-1 off 10 overs in last year’s World Cup final; They need just 5 overs to get through against Australia this time, emphatically claimed to bring the explosive Finn Allen into the side, acknowledging that this tournament is likely to be higher scoring.
— Tim Wigmore (@timwig) October 22, 2022
6th over: New Zealand 65-1 (Conway 19, Williamson 4) Cummins starts his second over with a dot, but Conway responds with an inventive touch of four to third, taking a leg step and then getting to edge a delivery barely above the cut. pull But without Allen at the other end, the Black Caps are less explosive and Williamson is happy to absorb a couple of points as the run-rate returns to something more realistic. It is still New Zealand’s highest World Cup powerplay total.
5th over: New Zealand 60-1 (Conway 14, Williamson 4) There is a delay after the wicket as it comes down to some faulty signals, robbing the game of some momentum and adding to the damage rain potential later. Finally, Hazlewood backs up his wicket with three points to Williamson, hitting it hard at cover and limiting the Kiwi skipper to take place. Williamson doesn’t panic and guides a bit of width behind point for four.
Best of Australia night by a mile. Will momentum change significantly?
WICKET! Allen b Hazlewood 42 (New Zealand 56-1)
Hazlewood is back. Allen steps forward. The ball beats the bat. Rearranged strains. Finn Allen’s superb innings ends on 42 off 16 deliveries. Excellent ‘if he misses you’ comeback from the highest ranked bowler in T20 cricket.
4th over: New Zealand 56-0 (Allen 42, Conway 14) Marcus Stoinis is summoned much earlier than imagined, and after Conway strokes a couple through the covers, there’s a cry for a catch, but the ball clipped the batsman’s net. not his gloves, as a bouncer bowed to Matthew Wade. Another point follows, after a break in play to repair the bowler’s feet. Conway recognizes that he needs to rotate the strike, which he does, allowing Allen to walk down the fairway and calmly put a six-iron over the sight screen. Majestic Baptism
Following Finn Allen in recent years has been like waiting for a highly anticipated band to deliver the album after their killer debut single. Desperately hoping that next month will see this release https://t.co/Xemqj84InK
— Ben Jones (@benjonescricket) October 22, 2022
3rd over: New Zealand 46-0 (Allen 35, Conway 11) Can Pat Cummins swing the momentum? Almost! After Conway gets up from the strike, Allen fails to hook a slower bouncer and goes right in and out of Zampa’s reach at backward square leg. The ball runs out for four and is subsequently clipped to the opposite segment of the boundary with a glorious lofted cover drive. And now a classic stretched for six, waiting again at the crease! This is Australia’s first choice pace attack in Sydney and Finn Allen is making them look like a village.
Robert Speed, who is definitely not from Perth, is not happy with Australia’s uniform. “Did Western Australia take Australia’s place in this tournament?” he asks contemptuously. “Isn’t the green and gold good enough for the Australian cricket team? They look like sandblasters. It’s a shame.”
Australia have been mostly black during the T-20 era, haven’t they? Wide green caps in Tests, gold and green in ODIs, black and yellow in T20.
2nd over: New Zealand 29-0 (Allen 19, Conway 10) The boundaries keep coming for the Kiwis! Josh Hazlewood starts on Devon Conway’s pads and number 88 (one of the bingo calling numbers of all time) tickles the delivery at fine leg for four. Conway, a lefty, then spikes and runs to put the right-handed Allen on strike. As he has the whole game so far, Allen is going really well but can only tip a bottom edge for another single. Don’t bother, Conway skips down the track and checks a path off the long-run fence. Another single turns the hit left-right and Allen takes advantage of Hazlewood dropping a touch short and a bit wide with a punishing square cut that leaves the SCG turf blistering.
This is a proactive, forceful and brilliant baptism.
1st over: New Zealand 14-0 (Allen 14, Conway 0) Starc starts with a good line and length over the wicket to the right-handed Allen for a point. The wicket is straw-coloured and dry, and Allen believes he’s going to play for real, hitting the second ball for a bounced four over long-on, then a third-ball six with an even cleaner stroke. It was a nice shot of clay. A slower bowler denies a hat-trick of boundaries but the SCG string is broken a delivery later with a direct drive that almost decapitated Conway at the non-striker’s end. A slower bowler ends up with a point that was a touch wide, but not marked.
Great start for the Black Caps!
The teams are in the middle. Mitchell Starc has the new white ball in hand. Finn Allen is on strike. Here we come!
Your referees tonight are Adrian Holdstock from South Africa and Kumar Dharmasena from Sri Lanka.
The teams are out for the anthems. New Zealand lock arms in a retro-themed gray and black uniform. Australia stand side-by-side in a First Nations-inspired yellow top and black pants, the material of which rustles as the wind howls through the SCG.
I’m here for the commemorative glasses. New Zealand continues to set the standard for off-field culture.
One of Australia’s key players early on with the ball will be accurate paceman Josh Hazlewood. He recently spoke to Simon Burnton about his long run on the fringes of T20 before his sudden rise.
One thing that makes his explosive return to T20s all the more remarkable is that during his time in the wilderness, not only did he not train specifically for it, he didn’t even see the shorter form games. “To be honest, I don’t watch much cricket in general,” he says. “If we face Sri Lanka on the track, we might see a bit of their matches, but usually there is enough footage to watch at the bowling meetings. So yeah, I hardly watch any cricket.”
James Wallace has picked some names to pay close attention to over the coming weeks, and of those, Australia’s Tim David is the one to watch tonight.
Born in Singapore but brought up in Australia, David had a blistering start to his career – a big stint with Perth Scorchers in the Big Bash and a handful of games for his native country didn’t mark him as anything special. That all changed in 2020-21 when he signed for the Hobart Hurricanes and in modern cricket parlance “started pulling trees”.
New Zealand XI
Finn Allen gets the nod from Martin Guptill and Mark Chapman has been favored over Michael Bracewell. It’s a lesser-known XI for the Kiwis, reflecting the start of a changing of the guard for the Black Caps.
Australia XI
As expected, Steve Smith has been left out of the Australian eleven in favor of Tim David. Cameron Green hasn’t done enough to force his way into the lineup yet, but he’s knocking on the door. It is a powerful batting order and a fearsome bowling attack.
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