Australia and New Zealand engaged in a highly entertaining match in Dharamsala on Saturday (October 28) in the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023.
New Zealand won the toss and elected to bowl first, as David Warner continued his great run of form and added 175 runs for the first wicket with Travis Head, who was playing his first match of the ongoing World Cup after recovering from injury. Warner fell for 81, 19 short of a third-consecutive ton in the tournament, but Head (109) completed a ton on his World Cup debut off just 59 balls.
Glenn Phillips accounted for both the openers, and also dismissed Steve Smith, to bring New Zealand back in the game. Mitchell Marsh struggled for his 36 off 51 balls, but Glenn Maxwell (41), Josh Inglis (38), and Pat Cummins (37) scored brisk cameos as Australia were bowled out for 388 in the last over. Trent Boult picked up three wickets in the 49th over to prevent Australia from crossing 400.
New Zealand needed a strong start, and they got it through Devon Conway and Will Young adding 61 in 7.2 overs before both fell in quick succession. Rachin Ravindra took control of the innings and added a century stand with Daryl Mitchell (54). Tom Latham (21) and Glenn Phillips (12) couldn't do much but Ravindra continued and brought up his 2nd ODI hundred, both coming in this tournament.
Ravindra fell for 116 in pursue of quick runs as the required run-rate increased to 9.5 per over, but Jimmy Neesham batted outstandingly well to score 58 off 39 balls to keep New Zealand interested in the 389-run chase until the last over, where they needed 19 runs off Mitchell Starc.
Neesham was run out trying to keep strike as New Zealand finished with 383/9 and Australia completed a win by 5 runs in the highest-scoring World Cup match of all-time with 771 runs scored in all. Adam Zampa took three wickets for Australia, while Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood took two wickets apiece.
New Zealand remained third on the table with 8 points from 6 matches, while Australia remain fourth with the same number of points and matches played.
Cricket fraternity lauded both teams for an excellent game of cricket in the mountains of Dharamsala, the last for this edition at the venue.
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