Updated on
Summary Australia beat New Zealand by seven wickets on Friday in their World Cup Group A match at Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium, Jamtha, Nagpur.
Chasing an easy target of 208 runs, twin fifties of Australian openers Watson (62) and Haddin (55) provided a good start to the defending champions. Ponting scored only 12 runs while Clarke and White took the team to a convincing victory against Kiwis. New Zealand bowlers were totally failed to stop the opponents who were scoring freely. Bad line and length of Kiwi bowlers caused them 32 extras.Earlier, it was the same old story for the New Zealand batting as they collapsed at 207 runs against Australia. Aussie paceman responded superbly to their skipper’s decision of bowling first after winning the toss. Though Brendon McCullum smashed three boundaries in the beginning, he fell on 16 and no Kiwi top order batsman could resist for long against the fire power of their opponents. New Zealand batting card was giving a sorry look as they stumbled on 6 for 73. But thanks to Nathan McCullum and Denial Vettori, whose valuable contribution of 52 and 44 helped New Zealand to just cross the 200 mark.Their innings finally ended in the 46th over when Tim Southee handed over a catch to Ponting on the bowling of Johnson, who took 4 for 33. Shaun Tait also sent three batsmen home. Johnson was declared man of the match.
