Christchurch: Australia lost to New Zealand by 53 runs in first T20 at Hagley Oval in Christchurch on Monday to take a 1-0 lead in the five-match series. New Zealand batted first posted an himalayan target for Aussies. New Zealand lost Margin Guptil for 0, Seifert for 1 and Williamson for 12.
Two crucial partnership by Conway along with Glenn Philips and James Needham rescued the team from a disaster and helped in building a big total. Conway scored 99* runs. New Zealand ended the match with 184-5 and setting a huge target for Aussies.
New Zealand bowlers started the match with a deadly spell ruining the Australian top order. Australians lost their four top order batsman for 19 runs in four overs. Aron Finch, Wade, Philippe and Maxwell couldn't survive the deadly spell and surrendered scoring 1, 12, 2 and 1 respectively.
Michel Marsh took the charge of rescue operations for Australian batting order. Marsh was able to reduce the speed of collapse. He managed to score 45 runs which contributed a major share in the total runs by Australians.
After Marsh, Agar made a failed attempt to withstand the New Zealand's ruthless bowling. He couldn't do much other than scoring 23 runs. Apart from Marsh and Agar, Australian batting is complete failure in the match with most of batsman scoring below 10.
Sodhi topped New Zealand with 4 wickets for 28 runs. Boult and Southee contributed their share with two wickets each. Convey awarded player of the match for his brilliant strike.
Second match of three match series will be held at University Oval on 25th February.
Brief scores: New Zealand 184/5 in 20 overs (Devon Conway 99 not out, Glenn Phillips 30; Jhye Richardson 2/31) beat Australia 131 all out in 17.3 overs (Mitchell Marsh 45, Ashton Agar 23; Ish Sodhi 4/28)