Vettori shines but Australia survive

Australia’s bowlers did an excellent job in the dying stages to oust New Zealand in the second ODI, which went down to the wire after a mammoth effort from Daniel Vettori.

Australia beat New Zealand by 12 runs at Auckland to level the 5-ODI series at 1-1.

Australia won the toss and elected to bat first. The visitors got off to a solid start with 43 runs in the Quick start overs. New Zealand struck back in the Bowling Power Play and picked up the wickets of Shane Watson and Ricky Ponting. The Kiwis bowled well in the next few overs and were successful in drying up the runs. They were rewarded for their efforts with the wickets of Brad Haddin and Michael Clarke in consecutive overs and at the halfway mark, Australia were struggling on 117 for four. But Cameron White and the dependable Michael Hussey brought stability to their innings. The pair added 101 runs for the fifth wicket and ensured that Australia was on top when the Extreme Performance period began. With wickets in hand, Australia went after the bowling in the last ten overs, adding 78 runs despite losing the wickets of White and Hussey. They finished with a total of 273 in 50 overs, going into the break in a much stronger position as reflected on the Castrol Index worm.

New Zealand suffered an early setback in their run chase after losing the wickets of Brendon McCullum, Peter Ingram and Neil Broom inside the first Power Play. A rain delay caused a halt in play after 8.4 overs and the target was revised to 266 in 45 overs, leaving them another 223 to get off 36.2 overs. James Franklin was out soon after resumption of play followed by Martin Guptill, who seems completely out of form in this series so far. Scott Styris and Gareth Hopkins kept New Zealand in the contest with a 42-run partnership for the sixth wicket before Styris lost his wicket to Nathan Hauritz. That brought Daniel Vettori out to the middle. Vettori was determined to push Australia all the way and his intentions were made clear by his batting. He shared a 45 run stand with Hopkins and led a late charge with the lower order batsmen, keeping the hosts within touching distance till the 44th over.Australia looked nervous towards the end but managed to get Vettori when New Zealand were 12 runs short.

Daniel Vettori was adjudged Man of the Match for his spirited effort with the bat, scoring 70 runs off 49 balls, despite being on the losing side.