Steve Smith admitted his Australian side “got away with one” after rain in Birmingham ruined a potentially compelling scenario and forced a no result in their Champions Trophy opener against New Zealand at Edgbaston.
Smith’s side had been wobbling in their pursuit of an adjusted target of 235 from 33 overs that followed New Zealand’s 291 all out batting first, reaching 53 for three by the end of the ninth over thanks to Trent Boult’s removal of David Warner and two wickets for Adam Milne.
The Australian captain, who was unbeaten on eight when the heavens opened over Birmingham for the third time on a stop-start day, praised his opposite number, Kane Williamson, for his earlier 100 with the bat but admitted his bowlers needed to sharpen up fast – Josh Hazlewood’s career-best six for 52 notwithstanding.
That was one our worst bowling displays for a long time,” said Smith. “We bowled both sides of the wicket and it was pretty ordinary. Let’s hope it’s rust and it’s gone because it was pretty ordinary. Kane timed his innings beautifully but the bowling is something we need to look at.”
Asked for his feelings on the soggy conclusion, he replied: “We still had some batters in the shed but I would have preferred to have been in New Zealand’s position at the end. We had work to do and a quality bowling attack against us, so we perhaps got away with one there.”
It was a sign of the times that when New Zealand’s innings ended with a record total against their trans-Tasman rivals in a global tournament – before rain in the interval prompted a revised target – it had actually felt an underwhelming one, with a collapse induced by Hazlewood’s late surge the root cause of the dismay.
After Luke Ronchi’s happy-go-lucky 65 from 43 balls and a round and typically crisp innings by their captain, Williamson, the Black Caps had looked set for something for far more grand in their rain-reduced 46-over innings, sitting pretty on 254 for three at the start of the 40th after winning the toss on a bounteous Birmingham pitch.
But Williamson’s groan-inducing demise – a relay run out effected by Moises Henriques and Pat Cummins when trying to pinch a single to backward point – proved the start of New Zealand losing their last six wickets for 37 runs in 35 balls. It left an over unbowled as Australia bounded into the interval feeling better themselves, following what had largely been a shabby display by Smith’s reigning world champions. When further showers came during the break, Australia’s task became a chase of 235 in 33 overs.
Hazlewood’s demolition job, in which he claimed three in four balls to snuff out the tail and return the second-best ever Champions Trophy figures, profited from some frenzied batting by New Zealand’s lower order, with Glenn Maxwell claiming four catches as a succession of batsmen tried – and failed – to clear the boundary rope without ever giving themselves a proper sighter first.
The Edgbaston crowd were chiefly supporting Williamson’s men judging by the cheers that greeted every Australian gaffe and included a bungled run out of Ronchi in the ninth over. The opener had a Twenty20 spell at Warwickshire last summer and delivered a blitz in keeping with the short form, as Cummins in particular was dealt some early tap. The 17 balls Australia’s quickest seamer sent down to Ronchi were taken for 41, including a couple of audacious lifted sixes over extra cover.
Having seen Martin Guptill depart to point on 16 thanks to Hazlewood’s early switch to cross-seamers, Williamson strode out to the middle for the best view in the house as Ronchi chanced his arm as the aggressor in a stand of 77 from 10 overs. Dropped on 54 by Mitchell Starc – a miss compounded when the next ball flew over his head at mid-on for four – the firework display was finally ended when he skewed John Hastings to point.
By this stage New Zealand had raced to 117 for two in the 16th over either side of a near two-hour break for rain and Williamson was set on 24. The New Zealand captain added a more becalmed 99 for the third wicket with Ross Taylor, who eased to 46 from 58 balls before another cross-seamer, this time from Hastings, was duffed into the covers.
Williamson was his typical glossy self in what became his ninth one-day hundred. But there were fireworks along the way too, with the burly Hastings blasted for 42 runs from just 25 balls as laced drives were interspersed with the odd slog sweep.
What should have been a platform from which to fully bury Australia – the spearhead of which, Starc, had looked undercooked – fell flat, however, with Williamson removed the ball after reaching three-figures and the innings fizzling out thereafter as Hazlewood picked up his career-best figures.
The final wicket of No11 Trent Boult, who survived a hat-trick ball only to edge behind next up, was the one classical dismissal in a succession of slogs that picked out fielders.
