Steven Smith, Joe Burns march Australia to series whitewash against New Zealand; retain Trans-Tasman Trophy 2015-16
Steven Smith, Joe Burns march Australia to series whitewash against New Zealand; retain Trans-Tasman Trophy 2015-16
Australia started their conquest towards 2-0 series win as Joe Burns and Usman Khawaja came marching in on Day 5 of the second Test against New Zealand at Christchurch needing 131 runs to win. Both Khawaja and Burns stared down everything that the New Zealand bowlers had to offer for the initial first hour of play, as Neil Wagner and Trent Boult dished out combination of short pitched and length bowling. Wagner even with a fracture on his left knuckle kept on bowling bouncer after bouncer to Burns in particular who looked a discomfort getting hit on the helmet and shoulder during his innings of 65. Burns got his fourth Test fifty off 137 balls. Joined by captain Steven Smith the pair added 66 runs in as many balls for the third wicket. Smith went on his merry ways bringing up his 16th Test half-century, thus helping Australia to win the second Test by wickets, thus retaining the Trans-Tasman Trophy 2015-16 by a margin of 2-0, whitewash in other words. LIVE CRICKET SCORECARD: New Zealand vs Australia, 2nd Test at Christchurch
There was some good news for the New Zealand player as Tim Southee managed to pick up the wicket of Khawaja. Khawaja looked good for a half-century before he gave a seemingly tough catch to a jumping Brendon McCullum. Coming in Steven Smith made a quick show of the match providing the much needed explosives. With only 32 runs required at the point of lunch, Steven Smith decided to chase time as the umpires decided to extend the session by 15 minutes. Burns playing for the team gave away his wicket on 65 runs as Boult cleaned him up, getting past the bat pad gap. Australia went into the extend lunch needing 16 runs to win with Smith on 47 and Adam Voges on 0. ALSO READ: Australia replace India as world No.1 in ICC Test rankings
Back after lunch Smith and new man Adam Voges needed 4 over to achieve the 16 required runs, hence winning the second Test match by 7 wickets and capping of a successful tour of New Zealand. With this win Australia also reclaim the No.1 spot on ICC Test Rankings replacing India, who now go onto No.2 . Joe Burns is selected as man of the match for his 170 and 65 runs from both innings.Day 4 was a kind of mixed for New Zealand with Kane Williamson, Matt Henry, BJ Watling and Corey Anderson frustrating the hell out of Australian pace men, before Jackson Bird and James Pattinson cleaned up their innings on 335, leaving Australia to chase down 201 runs. Bird picked up five wicket for just 59 runs.
Day 3 belonged to Neil Wagner who picked up his career best figures of 6 for 106. Adam Voges went past Sir Donald Bradman’s Test average of 99.94 and cane back down against after missing out on a hundred. Day 2 has Australia’s Burns take the charge who had already made a half-century went on to scored his third Test ton in just 190 balls(slow going by BAZ’s standards). Smith, on the other hand looked to be at complete ease while bringing up his 16th Test half-century in 93 balls.
Day 1 even though Australia after winning the toss and having bowled out the hosts for 370, it belonged to the one and only Brendon McCullum, who was playing his last ever Test match for New Zealand. McCullum created history when he firstly overtook Australian Adam Gilchrist’s record for the most Test sixes(100) and then moved on to a rather extraordinary one. With a barrage of sixes and fours, McCullum brought up his 12th Test ton in just 54 deliveries, two fewer than the previous record of 56 achieved by West Indies’ great Richards 30 years ago.
Brief Scores:
New Zealand 370 (Brendon McCullum 145; Nathan Lyon 3 for 61) and 335 (Kane Williamson 97 ; Jackson Bird 5 for 59) lost to Australia 505 (Joe Burns 170,; Neil Wagner 6 for 106) and 201 for 3 (Joe Burns 65, Steven Smith 53*, Tim Southee 1 for 30 ) by 7 wickets
FULL CRICKET SCORECARD: New Zealand vs Australia, 2nd Test at Christchurch
(Vishal Mehra is reporter at CricketCountry, who enjoys his weekly dose of anime, and plays cricket once a white moon. His twitter handle is @vishal_oxyjinn)