New Zealand v Australia: second T20 international – live!

19th over: New Zealand 199-6 (Neesham 32) The over comes to an end with Santner, first ball, trying to loft a six and hitting it higher than long. Maxwell from long-on comes in for a comfy catch. The Richardsons have dragged this back to some extent, at least.

Two overs to go, and Neesham has 30 from 10 balls. Kane Richardson keeps the brakes on, getting Neesham driving back and hitting the bowler, dot ball, might even have been a catching chance? Firmly hit. Then Richardson has Neesham miscue a pull shot to mid-on for a single, before Conway reaches for a wide one looking to slash it, and only coughs up a catch to third man in the deep.

18th over: New Zealand 195-4 (Neesham 30, Conway 1) Jhye misses his length once in the over, a high full toss that Neesham can flick away for four to deep midwicket. But still: a single, a wide, a boundary, three dots and a wicket from the over. A triumph in the circumstances.

Good bowling. Phillips is taking guard on off stump, so Jhye bowls really wide. Gets wided by the umpire once, but gets some latitude on a couple more deliveries given the batsman’s stance. Fourth ball, Phillips tries to go across to scoop the yorker length, but this time Richardson fires it straight, missing the shot completely and taking leg stump.

17th over: New Zealand 189-3 (Neesham 26, Phillips 8) For a moment, Kane Richardson has it under control. He knows that Neesham likes to go leg side, so he angles it way across the lefty. Changes pace. Gives him nothing to work with. For two balls. Then Neesham pounds a pull shot for his fourth six! Gets just about yorked for a single, and the right-handed Phillips picks up a ball off his pads for six more! Over midwicket. This is crazy hitting!

16th over: New Zealand 175-3 (Neesham 19, Phillips 2) The wicket of Williamson comes in the over, but only after Neesham had made it three sixes from three balls, destroying his first from Zampa with a slog-sweep. Then absolutely nails his fourth ball flat, on the bounce, but the boundary rider at deep mid cuts it off.

Strange sort of shot from Williamson, doesn’t play anything big, maybe just looking for a single to put Neesham on strike? Gets stuck on the crease, almost overbalances before the ball arrives, and it’s short enough to give the wrong ‘un time to turn back into the batsman. It does so, Williamson prods, inside edge, onto his stumps.

15th over: New Zealand 163-2 (Williamson 50, Neesham 12) You don’t think of Williamson as a speedster but 50 from 32 is not the work of an accumulator. He gets his milestone, then Guptill falls. Will that slow down New Zealand? Errrrm, no. Jimmy Neesham pounds his first two balls for six! Left-hander versus left-armer, and Neesham pulls the first one over wide long-on, then whips the next over deep backward square leg. He’s 12 from 2!

Massive wicket with just more than five overs to go! Sams bowls a good first few balls, singles and then beats Guptill outside off, so Guptill tries to launch the fourth ball straight. Gets a good piece of it but not quite enough this time, and Stoinis at long-off claims it on the rope. No century for Guptill, would have been his third in T20I cricket, but he’ll have to be content with two so far.

14th over: New Zealand 149-1 (Guptill 96, Williamson 49) Zampa is back and he’s bowling well. Bravely, too. Flights a ball right in at the toes of Guptill, darts flatter ones at Williamson’s pads, concedes a wide when he’s trying to get Williamson stumped, has only gone for six from five balls, but bowls the final delivery on a tasty length and Kane plays the slog-sweep that carries just a metre or so over Maxwell’s head on the rope at deep midwicket for six. The hits keep coming!

13th over: New Zealand 137-1 (Guptill 93, Williamson 41) A change of Richardsons, Jhye into the attack, bowls a decent sort of floating delivery on a length that doesn’t bounce much, but Williamson clocks the pace on it, dips at the knees, and still manages to pull it over midwicket for six! Caned! Williamson is almost run out after that, short at the non-striker’s end after Finch throws from deep on the circle at mid-off, but the throw misses. The change of strike lets Guptill get under a wide yorker and slice it over point for four.

12th over: New Zealand 123-1 (Guptill 87, Williamson 33) It just will not stop raining sixes at Uni Oval! Guptill gets lucky on the first one, a short ball that he tries to flip-pull away over backward square, but instead it hits almost the inside shoulder of the bat, up near the gloves, and flies over the keeper into the sight screen on the full. That’s a ridiculously clean miscue. Nothing miscued about the next though, as Richardson bowls a proper slot ball and Guptill just dismisses it down the ground into the other sight screen. Richardson tries for width but misses his length, and Guptill scorches the wide full toss through cover for four! Before all of that, Williamson had placed a cut shot fine for three runs after a couple of singles. 21 from the over!

11th over: New Zealand 102-1 (Guptill 70, Williamson 29) Marcus Stoinis comes on with his medium pace. Williamson pulls two runs to midwicket, top-edgy, then miscues a scoop that Wade almost gets forward to catch. Bowling to Guptill will be the challenge, though, and he duly goes for six! There’s that shot across the line. It isn’t very short from Stoinis, only about waist-high in bounce, but Guptill pulls it anyway over square leg. Stoinis goes short again, slower ball, well outside off stump, but Guptill fetches it over the leg side anyway. That can be a hard shot, but when a player has arms as long as Guptill they can really get power into that, and it disappears over wide long-on. Huge score coming, hundred up, 17 from the over.

10th over: New Zealand 85-1 (Guptill 57, Williamson 25) Brilliant stop by Finch at cover denies Guptill a boundary, keeps him to one. Then smart batting from Williamson: he fakes moving to the leg side, then comes back across to off. Agar has tried to follow him towards leg, which means that Williamson ends up with a leg-stump pie that he can kneel down and loft with a sweep over backward square leg for four. Into the mood, he skips down the wicket to drive Agar for six! Another simple shot, we haven’t seen any slogging across the line when these batsmen have wanted to attack. The over costs 13.

9th over: New Zealand 72-1 (Guptill 56, Williamson 13) Daniel Sams bowls an over that’s either pitched up yorker length or dug into the pitch back of a length. He bowls one horror full toss, should have been a no-ball just about, outside the off stump, but gets away with it thanks to a deep point who protects the boundary. Six from the over.

8th over: New Zealand 66-1 (Guptill 52, Williamson 11) Jhye Richardson gets the relief of getting to bowl mostly to Kane Williamson, which isn’t a frequent sentiment you’d hear expressed in any form of cricket. Williamson cuts a loose short ball for four but the over only goes for seven runs. That feels like an Australian win in the circumstances.

7th over: New Zealand 59-1 (Guptill 50, Williamson 6) Zampa to continue to Guptill and…

THAT HAS GONE INTO THE CAR PARK.

What a shot from Guptill! That is his cleanest of the day by a distance. That distance is about 150 metres by the look of it. Guptill plays that purely on line, I think. Zampa usually bowls straight at the stumps but that ball is a bit wider. Guptill stays in his crease, isn’t fully to the pitch, but trusts that Zampa won’t turn it much. And he drives it dead straight, over the crowd, over the building, over the perimeter fence, and literally out of the ground. A six in 1880s terms. Goodness me.

Two balls later Guptill goes again. And so does Zampa. A shuffle down the pitch this time, a bit of turn sees the ball struck a bit wider down the ground, but its the same result on the scoreboard.

6th over: New Zealand 45-1 (Guptill 37, Williamson 5) Whackity whack. Agar’s frugal start does not continue. Guptill again plays that really simple drive through the line, not swinging too hard, just timing the ball over long-off for six. Then backs away from a shorter ball and cracks it through cover point for four.

5th over: New Zealand 30-1 (Guptill 24, Williamson 3) And a good over from the leg-spinner Adam Zampa. Gets away with a full toss first ball that only costs him a single to deep midwicket, but thereafter he lands them nicely. Draws a thick inside edge past Guptill’s stumps for a couple, and otherwise only concedes a few singles.

4th over: New Zealand 25-1 (Guptill 21, Williamson 1) Kane Richardson bowls out the over well. Guptill gets one boundary, but miscued, aiming over mid-on but instead getting a leading edge over mid-off. Then he nicks the final ball of the over but it’s a low-pace slower ball and so it bounces through to Matthew Wade behind the stumps.

First ball of the other Richardson’s day and he gets a wicket. Bowled back of a length, a slightly slower variation, and Seifert wants to muscle it over the off-side field with everyone up in the ring. Doesn’t make good contact with the cross-bat shot and only skews it away to mid-off.

3rd over: New Zealand 20-0 (Guptill 17, Seiftert 3) Shot from Martin Guptill! Jhye Richardson comes on with pace and Guptill smokes him for six. Richardson is bowling in at the stumps and Guptill just shuffles a touch before the ball arrives, half a pace down the wicket, which turns the ball into a half-volley. A simple swing through the line and it vanishes over long-off! What a strike. A couple of balls later Richardson tries the same line but fuller, and this time Guptill stays home and chips it over the bowler’s head for four. He looks good when he’s on.

2nd over: New Zealand 8-0 (Guptill 6, Seiftert 2) Ashton Agar the other opening bowler, left-armers from both ends. Orthodox spin in theory from Agar though he doesn’t try to flight or turn one. Just bangs in some straight darts from around the wicket, wide line, in at the legs. And it works, the batsmen only get two singles from the over.

1st over: New Zealand 6-0 (Guptill 5, Seiftert 1) Daniel Sams to start with, left-arm brisk. Overpitches first ball and Guptill takes advantage, driving along the ground through extra cover for four. Sams dials back his length after that, using the angle to good effect just across Guptill without giving any width. Good bowling. Three dots then a single, and Seifert punches one run from the final delivery.

Got an email in from Jack Jorgensen.

“I really enjoy Aaron Finch as a captain and a batter, but his form is starting to get a bit worrying. It’s not even the lack of runs really, it’s more so the lack of even starts. It seems like he can’t get himself going. Do you think that Riley Meredith is an either/or with Jhye Richardson? Sams offers left-arm variety, and Kane Richardson is more of a change-up bowler, whereas Jhye and Riley seem to fit more the express pace options. By the way, the bowling attack either has a very biblical feel (Kane, Adam, Daniel), or a modern Millenial-name feel (Jhye, Riley). Two bob for your thoughts on the TV umpire in Ind v Eng last night.”

A few things there. Yes, Finch even at the toss seemed uncomfortable and unhappy, we saw when he had his bad patch in 2019 that it really got on top of him. Hence the string of very early dismissals. He need a circuit-breaker.

Yes, the bowling selections follow that pattern. They want Kane for variations, exactly that, and he’s one of the more senior players having been picked for a while even when the big names are present. Sams offers batting as well, which helps.

And the third umpire… well, it’s almost like you know that I was up until 4am watching a Test match before logging on at 11am for this T20. This question regards Ben Stokes having a catch at slip struck out for touching the ground. I think that the third umpire process through several of the recent Tests has been rushed at times, and they could have looked at more camera angles if they had them. But I also doubt that any other angle would have changed the story given that most of both of the fielder’s hands were on the sides of the ball, not underneath, and that his hands moved laterally for such a long way across the ground. Stokes probably did have a finger under the ball, but he must have caught it with some assistance from the ground.

England’s understanding of umpiring processes has been pretty poor through the series, and they keep getting upset which doesn’t help in any way.

There’s a lovely old grandstand at the Uni Oval. A correspondent sent me some photos of the place a couple of days ago, snapped during his daily dog-walk. Wish that we could be over there: this match will be followed by two ODIs between NZ and England women, so plenty of cricket for Dunedin this week. England easily won the first match in Christchurch yesterday.

Two unchanged sides will walk out today, New Zealand happy with how things went, Australia wanting to give the same players a chance to fix things up. Interesting that Riley Meredith hasn’t played either of the first two matches after being signed for $1.4million AUD in the IPL auction last week.

New Zealand
Martin Guptill
Tim Seifert +
Kane Williamson *
Devon Conway
Glenn Phillips
Jimmy Neesham
Mitchell Santner
Kyle Jamieson
Tim Southee
Ish Sodhi
Trent Boult

Australia
Aaron Finch *
Matthew Wade +
Josh Philippe
Glenn Maxwell
Marcus Stoinis
Mitchell Marsh
Daniel Sams
Ashton Agar
Jhye Richardson
Kane Richardson
Adam Zampa

Another coin called the right way for Aaron Finch, which was about the only thing that did go right for him the other night. He chooses to chase again. There has never been a T20I at the University Oval in Dunedin, so there’s no way to know how it’s going to play. T20 captains these days prefer to have a look at conditions before having to bat in them.