New Zealand against Australia abandoned due to rain

Birmingham: New Zealand and Australia earned a point apiece after rain forced abandonment of their group match at the Champions Trophy on Wednesday.

Set 244 to win, the Kiwis were 51 for two off 15 overs when rain stopped play at 3.40pm local time. They needed to face a minimum of 20 overs for either side to have a chance of winning under the Duckworth/Lewis system for rain-affected matches. With rain falling steadily, the match was finally abandoned.

New Zealand are now on three points after their one-wicket win over Sri Lanka while defending champions Australia got their first point of the tournament, making their road to semifinals tougher.

They were without David Warner after the opening batsman was axed for an alleged assault on England’s Joe Root in a Birmingham bar in the early hours of Sunday morning.

Left-arm pacer Mitchell McClenaghan produced his second successive four-wicket spell to restrict Australia to 243 for eight.

Australia, who got off to a sedate start by losing two early wickets after electing to bat first, managed to post the impressive total through their in-form skipper George Bailey, who cracked his second successive half-century.

He followed up his innings of 55 against England with an identical score, adding 64 runs for the third wicket with Matthew Wade (29) and 77 for the fourth with Adam Voges (71).

Voges, who emerged as the top-scorer with 71, played 76 balls and hit seven boundaries but it was Glen Maxwell who hit 29 off 22 balls that swelled Australia’s total. He hit the only two sixes of the whole innings.

McClenaghan checked Australia’s run flow with the third ball of the second over, picking the prize wicket of Shane Watson. He made Watson to push at a ball away from the body and had him caught behind.

Philip Hughes lasted just four balls before being run out by Martin Guptill’s fine throw from the covers for a duck. Bailey, who joined Wade, steadied the innings with caution.

The first 10 overs yielded just 32 runs. The pair took the score to 74 by the 19th over before Nathan McCullum provided the breakthrough trapping Wade leg before for 29. 

Australia reached 99 for three at the half-way mark after Bailey and Voges accelerated the run rate and put on 77 runs in 16 overs.

McCullum once again ended the partnership, by bowling Bailey with a delivery that surprisingly kept low, for 55. Bailey’s 91-ball stay contained five boundaries and helped Australia go past the 150-run mark.

Mitchell Marsh and Voges fought hard to score runs against the tight New Zealand attack. Though the experienced Daniel Vettori did not get any wickets, he bowled his 10 overs giving away just 23 runs.

At a time when Australia should have gone for runs, they began to lose wickets, with McClenaghan striking repeatedly. He made Marsh top edge to wicketkeeper for 22 in the 42nd over.  Two overs later, he also had a well-set Voges dismissed to a full toss. Skipper Brendon McCullum took the catch at short cover.

McClenaghan picked up his fourth wicket when he scalped Mitchell Johnson.

Glenn Maxwell played some aggressive shots to accelerate the run rate towards the close. In the 49th over, he hit Williamson for two sixers, one over long on and another over deep square leg to finish with a challenging run-rate of 4.86 runs.