Mitchell Johnson

Australia and New Zealand played their second match in the tournament today , which was against each other , at the Vidharba Cricket Association Stadium, Nagpur. This match which was going to be the decider for the Chappell-Hadlee trophy and had already a lot to play for was eventually won by Australia quite comfortably.

Australia won the toss and elected to field first to take advantage of the seaming conditions that Nagpur provides. There was already some grass on the pitch and the first hour was going to be equally important. Martin Guptill as well as Brendan McCullum opened the innings in the much expected defensive way trying to keep the wickets in hand. However Brendon McCullum was the first to depart off a delivery of Shaun Tait.

Martin Guptill was the second to depart at a personal score of 10. Ryder and Taylor tried to keep wickets in hand in the much seaming track and lethal Australian pace attack. Ryder (26) and Franklin (0) lost their wickets in the span of three balls by Mitchell Johnson as they were caught behind the wicket by Haddin.

Shaun Tait was not to be left behind as he picked up two quick wickets in the form of Styris (0) and Taylor (7).

How and Nathan McCullum took the innings forward, somehow trying to hold the innings. How departed at a personal score of 22 leaving the innings at 7-121. Nathan McCullum (52) and Vettori (44) contributed to New Zealand’s final score of 206 when the black caps were bowled out.

The wicket naturally having eased out a bit when Australia came out to bat did not cause much of a problem for the Australians to start with. The Australian openers Shane Watson (62) and Brad Haddin (55) literally went blazing guns and put up an opening stand of 133 runs in 18.1 overs.

Ricky Ponting, who followed after the dismissal of Haddin, continued his ill luck as he was dismissed for a score of 12 by Tim Southee. With the three top order batsmen gone, Clarke and White took control of the situation and reached the target of 207 with ease in 34 overs.

Mitchell Johnson was awarded the man of the match award for his brilliant spell of 4-33 in 9.1 overs.

The Group A standings at the moment has Australia at the top with two wins in two matches followed by Sri Lanka who have one win in one match.

However given the number of matches to be played in the tournament and the tournament being just in its first week it is imperative that these rankings at the moment might not hold any significance in the outcome of the tournament.

Tags: Australia, Chappell-Hadlee Trophy, Cricket, Mitchell Johnson, Nagpur, New Zealand, Vidharba Cricket Association Stadium