Marauding Aussies

SYDNEY: New Zealand lost their last seven wickets for just 23 runs as Australia wrapped up another crushing win in the second tri-series ODI at Hobart on Sunday.

The Australians followed up their eight-wicket demolition of England in Melbourne on Friday with another easy 105-run win over New Zealand, raising fears the limited-overs series will be just as one-sided as the Ashes. The hosts overcame a middle-order slump to post 289 for 8 from their 50 overs before their bowlers ripped through New Zealand’s lower-order to restrict the tourists to 184 in less than 39 overs.

New Zealand fast bowler Shane Bond took a hat-trick in the final over of the Australian innings, but only after the world champions had amassed a daunting total.

All-rounder Andrew Symonds top-scored with 69 off 70 balls to win the man-of-the-match award after Adam Gilchrist got the innings off to a flying start with a typically cavalier 61 from 58 deliveries.

“I suppose you’d have to say that we’re having a fairly good run, but we’re not satisfied by any means,” Symonds said later. “We’ve still got a bit of improving to do. I think we’ve still played pretty good in the first two games, but there are things there we can still pay some attention too.

“We still see this as a very important process because we’ve still got the World Cup coming up, we’re building our whole summer around to hopefully being in the World Cup final.”

New Zealand managed to slow down Australia’s scoring rate when they reduced the home side to 196-5 in the 42nd over before Symonds and Cameron White smashed 90 runs in nine overs at the end to take the total close to 300. “We kept them reasonably contained but the last four or five overs hurt us a lot,” New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming said. 

Bond hat-trick: White smacked three sixes in a quickfire 45 off 32 balls before he was caught on the boundary chasing a half-century, and providing Bond with the first leg of an unlikely hat-trick. Symonds departed on the next ball when he nicked a catch behind before Bond clean bowled Nathan Bracken with a slower ball to complete his hat-trick. Bond’s hat-trick was just the 23rd in ODI history and only the second by a New Zealander, matching Danny Morrison who achieved the feat against India in 1994. “You always hope you’re going to get a hat-trick but you never really think you’ll get there, so to get it was a real bonus,” Bond said.

New Zealand made a terrible start to their reply when they slumped to 7-2 with Nathan Astle departing for a duck and Ben Hilfenhaus capping his Australian debut by trapping McCullum lbw for five. Ross Taylor batted superbly, striking 10 fours and three sixes in his 84. New Zealand play England in Hobart on Tuesday in the third match of the series.

Scorecard

Australia: A Gilchrist lbw Patel 61, M Hayden c McCullum b Gillespie 27, R Ponting c Fleming b Gillespie 10, M Clarke c Astle b Bond 33, A Symonds c McCullum b Bond 69, M Hussey c Marshall (sub) b McMillan 20, C White c McMillan b Bond 45, M Johnson (not out) 2, N Bracken b Bond 0, S Clark (not out) 1; Extras (nb-8, w-6, lb-7) 21

Total (for 8 wickets, 50 overs) 289

Fall of wickets: 1-83, 2-104, 3-117, 4-164, 5-196, 6-286, 7-286, 8-286

Bowling: Franklin 4-0-31-0, Bond 10-0-61-4, Gillespie 10-2-50-2, Patel 10-0-64-1, Vettori 10-1-48-0, Astle 4-0-18-0, McMillan 2-0-10-1

New Zealand: B McCullum lbw Hilfenhaus 5, N Astle c Gilchrist b Bracken 0, S Fleming c Hussey b Johnson 29, R Taylor c Gilchrist b Johnson 84, P Fulton c Symonds b Clark 37, C McMillan (run out) 2, D Vettori c Hayden b Clark 1, J Franklin c Clarke b White 6, S Bond b Symonds 2, M Gillespie (not out) 4, J Patel c Hilfenhaus b Symonds 4; Extras (lb-3, w-7) 10

Total (all out, 38.3 overs) 184

Fall of wickets: 1-5, 2-7, 3-80, 4-161, 5-165, 6-166, 7-171, 8-175, 9-175

Bowling: Bracken 7-0-25-1, Hilfenhaus 7-1-26-1, Johnson 7-0-27-2, Clark 8-0-40-2, Symonds 6.3-0-41-2, White 3-0-22-1

Man-of-the-Match: Andrew Symonds