New Zealand v Australia: fourth T20 international – live!

9th over: Australia 61-2 (Finch 20, Maxwell 12) A brace and a single for Finch against Sodhi, and Maxwell says that he’s had enough waiting around. Loves to take on the spinners. Backs away and slaps Sodhi through cover for four, catchable height but gets the gap nicely and it runs wide enough to beat long off.

Next ball, it’s the switch hit for six! Swaps his legs over, not his hands this time, but ends up wayyyy outside his off stump by the time he hits the ball, his front foot almost off the pitch, and clobbers it over cover point into the seats. Shot.

8th over: Australia 48-2 (Finch 17, Maxwell 2) Enter Maxwell, after his five sixes and eight fours the other night. He starts with a couple of singles here, and misses an uppercut against Jamieson. Maxwell holds the pose, making sure the umpire knows that he couldn’t reach it, and it is duly called a wide. Jamieson lets another ball go down the leg side. Four singles and the two wides from the over.

7th over: Australia 42-2 (Finch 15) Ish Sodhi on to bowl some leg-breaks now that New Zealand can have more fielders in the deep. Philippe nearly finds one of them with an inside-out drive over cover, but it drops short. Two near misses for him today, after he had five or six near chances in his innings of 43 the other night. But his luck runs out from the final ball of the over. After picking up a couple of singles, he gets Sodhi’s variation that is pushed out the front of the hand, a delivery that floats through the air and wobbles as it crawls down the wicket. Philippe goes back and tries to lift it over square leg, but he only goes upwards rather than across, and it’s caught by Southee tracking back towards deep square.

6th over: Australia 38-1 (Finch 13, Philippe 11) Spared by a DRS review. Southee gets a length ball to deck back in a bit, hits Philippe in front of off stump as he tries to whip to the onside, and he’s given out, but he’s up on his toes and is hit above the knee roll, on the crease. Should be spared here for height… and he is, the ball going over the bails. Philippe looked ready to walk but his captain told him to review. He celebrates by waiting on a Southee slower ball outside off stump and slashing it away with a diagonal bat for four. Scurries a single to end the fielding restrictions period, and Australia have 38 runs in those first six overs. New Zealand have had the better of things so far, but wickets in hand mean that the Aussies could catch up.

5th over: Australia 33-1 (Finch 13, Philippe 6) Santner still getting some turn away from the right-handers, and he draws a leading edge from both batsmen in this over as they try to turn him to the leg side. Both times the edge shoots away behind point, Philippe’s edge going not far from slip, but getting through Jamieson at short third to roll for three runs. Five from the over, another good one.

4th over: Australia 28-1 (Finch 12, Philippe 2) Here comes Kyle Jamieson. Had a brilliant start to his Test career but has battled to land the ball where he wants to in the shortest form. Finch knows that the field is back, and he knows that the default length of a two-metre-plus player will be shortish, so he leans back to spoon a pull shot over midwicket for four, then anticipates a fuller length and skips down to spoon that one over mid on. Neither of them especially clean shots, but they just need to be helped over the field at this stage of the innings.

3rd over: Australia 19-1 (Finch 4, Philippe 1) Some variation for Santner too, as he follows up his straight-ball wicket by turning one past the edge of Finch’s bat. Only a single to Philippe conceded from the spinner’s first over.

Masterstroke from Williamson. Only three overs into the match, with fielding restrictions still in place, the skipper brings on his left-arm spinner. Santner comes around the wicket to Wade looking to angle the ball across. The first couple of deliveries Wade can’t beat the field square of the wicket on the off side, so the third ball he tries to open the face and late cut. Gets more bounce than he anticipates, a quick delivery from Santner, and it takes the top edge to short third.

2nd over: Australia 18-0 (Wade 14, Finch 4) Trent Boult with the new ball from the other end, the left-arm swing maestro. Got a slip in position, Guptill standing wide of the keeper. Tries a sharp bouncer instead of looking for a nick, and Wade hooks it firmly off his grille for a single. His ball to Finch is only halfway up though, on the hip, and Finch can easily pull that behind square for four. Boult hits back nicely, full and swinging in so nearly nailing the front pad, but Finch squeezes an inside edge.

1st over: Australia 11-0 (Wade 11, Finch 0) First ball of the match, four. Width from Southee across the left-hander, and pitched up, so Wade drives through long off. Didn’t nail it but gets enough to beat mid off.

Gets enough of the next one, though! Plays the pick-up shot to take a ball from outside the off stump, not short and only on a length, but he’s able to get under it and lift it miles into the air before it lands in a doorway in the distant grandstand. A single to follow and that’s all the scoring from the over.

Southee has the ball in hand, and the retro beige shirt on, and will start us off.

A bit of pressure off Finch in the last match, when he made 69 runs after a long string of low scores through the Big Bash and IPL. One half-century won’t win everyone over if he backs it up with a couple more single-figure efforts, but if he can back it up here with something reasonable then that will help a lot.

Unchanged XI for Australia, NZ bring Mitchell Santner back in now that he’s been cleared of COVID concerns with Mark Chapman making way.

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

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

Interesting. The other day, both teams wanted to chase on this ground. Kane Williamson got that choice and it didn’t work for New Zealand. Today, Aaron Finch has the choice and he elects to bat first again. It did seem a bit difficult to time shots on this wicket, and that may get more difficult as the night wears on.