New Zealand won the toss and elected to field first and their opening bowlers were in terrific form with mills leading the way. Australia was pushed to a defence mood with the early wicket of Garner in the 2nd over when the cricket score was 4 runs. Michael Clarke was solid in defence and never looked like taking the aerial root. The first power play was boring with Australia playing like a test match. Australians are known for their aggression but this was totally lacking and the batsmen played to keep wickets and finally, Australia reached their 50 runs in the 14th over at a run rate of 3.5 per over.

The only feature of the Australian innings was the 161 run partnership of Clarke and Michael Hussey. The partnership was not attacking. Australia took the batting power play in the 34th over and Australian batsmen started to play shots freely but Michael Hussey was dismissed in the 46th over for 75 runs from 94 balls including only 4 boundaries. Finally, Australia finished their innings for a live cricket score of 225 runs. Cricket360 comments that this Australian defensive innings was totally different with Michael Clarke scoring 98 runs from 133 balls including 7 boundaries.

New Zealand bowled well and all the bowlers had decent figures. New Zealand opened their batting positively with McCullum attacking from the front. Australia had the initial breakthrough with bracken claiming the wicket of Guptill in the 4th over when the cricket score was 21 runs. Fulton and Taylor contributed their runs to New Zealand but none lasted. McCullum was dismissed for 43 runs, Fulton for 21 and Taylor for 47 runs. New Zealand innings also was full of singles and top order batsmen scored only 10 boundaries in total.

The partnership of Elliot and Taylor took the New Zealanders close to victory. Elliot was aggressive and remained unbeaten on 61 runs from 75 balls including 6 boundaries. New Zealand reached their target of 226 runs with 7 balls to spare and lead the 5 match Chappell-Hadlee series 2-0. Michael Clarke was chosen as the man of the match. The loss has pushed Australia to the third spot in the ICC ODI rankings after India. South Africa is at the top spot followed by India and to get full statistics on these details, log on to Cricket360.com.

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3.25 Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved."

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