World Cup Live Report - Australia vs New Zealand

A thriller. This has been a thriller. And its come from outta nowhere. 771 runs scored The most in a World Cup game. And still it went down to the last ball.

Travis Head scored a century in the blink of an eye.

Rachin Ravindra answered with one of his own, an incredibly polished effort under immense pressure. He has middled 310 of the 377 balls (SR 123) he's faced in this World Cup according to our ball-by-ball data. There is only one person who's done better. Virat Kohli (350 of 391, SR 96). This 23-year old is kiiiiiinda keeping pace with the ODI GOAT.

Starc finishes with 89 runs in nine overs but he played a HUUUGE hand in this win. After giving away five wides, he recovered beautifully. He had only 12 runs to defend of the last five balls. And he gave away only 7.

Jimmy Neesham. Oh Jimmy Neesham. He ends up dead centre in these games. Soooo close to pulling it off for NZ. Again! As if four years ago wasn't enough. He had batted only three times in ODIs in 2023. To do what he did is not too far away from what Head did earlier in the day, when he came out of a six-week injury and flayed the bowling to all parts.

So many threads. So many stories. So many players going above and beyond.

Is that what they needed in the Super Over in 2019??

Mitchell Starc to bowl. Australia have been hit with an over-rate penalty. They have to have five (one more) fielder inside the circle. So one less fielder (only four) on the boundary

THE ROOF FLIES OFF THE STADIUM AS STARC BOWLS FIVE WIDES!

Neesham lets it go and his mouth is in the shape of an O!

ITS 11 OFF 4 NOW. Kane Williamson on the dugout is rocking the deadpan as he claps his hands. Cummins and Smith are with Starc, discussing tactics.

Glenn Maxwell and Marnus Labsuchagne have saved boundaries off back to back balls! Australia stationed Maxwell very straight down the ground and he prevented a bullet drive from Neesham hitting the rope. Labuschagne was at deep midwicket and he ran so far to his left to stop another boundary

Next ball, the fifth ball, is a full toss and Neesham is run-out trying to retain strike. He's played an amazing knock. But its 6 off 1 now and Ferguson with an Achilles injury is in to bat.

Incredible game. Incredible resistance to pressure, from both teams, but especially by Australia in this final over.

Neesham on 45 unbeaten. Kane Williamson walks out with a message to him.

Josh Hazlewood to bowl the 49th over. Trent Boult on strike. And he's hit a six to start the over!

Trent Boult did exactly that in the 2019 World Cup final. He trod on the boundary rope while taking a catch. Now its Marnus Labuschagne who's trod on the long-on boundary rope taking a catch

Dharamsals is absolutely ROARING!

With Trent Boult and an injured Lockie Ferguson left, the bulk of those will need to come off Neesham's bat. And he starts with a straight six off Mitchell Starc.

The pitch has left the ground asymmetrical. That's obviously played a part in this game being as high-scoring as it is.

He's batted only three times in ODIs in 2023

NZ go into the last five overs needing 58 off 30 balls.

Their tail is exposed. So Neesham has to farm the strike, and keep scoring at nearly two runs a ball.

"He is an uncanny cricketer," Ian Smith said on the broadcast. He lives for these moments. The big ones.

He took the record for most runs conceded in a 10 over spell last month.

He was playing through several niggles through the start of the World Cup.

He was their only spinner and he began the campaign with figures of 1 for 123 from two games.

Since then, he's been 15 for 182 from four games.

Adam Zampa is top of the tree among the bowlers here in India.

And he's got there the hard way. He's got there showing resilience.

Lockie Ferguson will bat despite his right Achilles injury earlier in the day.

Ricky Ponting on commentary is just class. He presents the fact that Jimmy Neesham, who came into this game because of an injury to Mark Chapman, is the only NZ batter with an ODI fifty against Australia.

This chase is now on him. And he's no stranger to thrillers, is he?

This is where Pat Cummins' runs have counted big time. He came in during the 45th over and whacked 37 off 14, with four sixes.

Game over for NZ?

With a fifth man now allowed outside the circle, Ravindra's loft looking for a six past long-off doesn't pan out.

Special innings. Special player. But Australia kept up with their disciplines. They kept going off pace and into the wicket. The older ball on the abrasive pitch is gripping and stopping and turning. They take a batter's timing away from him and that's what happened to Ravindra riiiiight at the end.

Australia kept asking tough questions of NZ. And now they may have made the blow that turns this game decisively in their favour

After 40 overs
Australia were 292 for 5
New Zealand 292 for 5

NZ made 84 for 2 in overs 31-40. They need 97 more.

Glenn Maxwell drops Ravindra the ball after he hits a six to get the hundred. Whoa! What does this game have in store for us?

There is another catching opportunity, this one off Glenn Phillips' bat. Mis-hit down the ground only carries as far as Marnus Labuschagne at mid-off.

This is Ravindra or bust for New Zealand. Its incredible that they're even here in a chase of 388. It's incredible that a 23-year old has got them here. That he's holding his end of the deal, and admirably at that. Two centuries - against England and Australia no less - in his very first World Cup campaign.

He has scored at batter than run a ball against both pace (SR 106, 18 boundaries) and spin (SR 109, 28 boundaries)

He also averages over 200 against spin, which is basically because those are his runs off spin bowling and he's been dismissed only once in five innings.

These are his boundary scoring areas today.

Glenn Phillips started the last IPL as Sunrisers' first-choice finisher. That's because he has power and he plays 360 degrees.

But the comparison of his game against spin to Heinrich Klaasen's made sure he was pushed to the bench pretty quickly.

That's going to be crucial for the rest of this innings. Even the Austrlia fast bowlers are going offcutters and cross-seam balls into the wicket

Phillips is 11 off 13 and he's got there with a lucky boundary. His first instinct is to go back in his crease - even to fuller or good length balls - and read the turn off the pitch.

It's a 20 over game now. NZ need 181 to win. They have seven wickets in hand. Five of them can bat including this pair and Mitchell Santner. Thats nine runs an over.

At the first time of asking - the 31st over - NZ keep up with the rate.

Australia understand they can't just let this drift so they bring in Adam Zampa again. His five remaining overs here will be extremely key. And so it's proven. He dismisses Tom Latham off the second ball of his second spell. Extra bounce ensures the reverse sweep lands in short third's hands.

Another 5% swing in ESPNcricinfo Forecaster. Australia go up from a 77% chance of victory to 83%

He may not have even played in the XI if Michael Bracwell had been fit.

He may not have been batting up the order if Kane Williamson had been fit.

He was an emergency solution.

He is now NZ's highest scorer at the World Cup. And in the top five.

Rachin Ravindra. 23 years old. Proving with every trip to the batting crease that he is NZ's future.

It's drift.

The drift into the right-hander has made sure Mitchell and his great strength - hitting down the ground - doesn't work for him.

Caught at long-on for 54 off 51, with the legbreak drifting past the middle of the bat and taking more of the inside half.

Beautiful stuff from the Australian spinner. That wicket increases Australia's chance of winning by 6%. They're up at 81.23 according to our Forecaster.

A little past the halfway mark of the chase - the 27th over - Australia have burned both their reviews. Anybody really think they'll be needing assistance from DRS to wrap this up? If we get to that point, we'd have had a great game!

When we bring the entire world into it, Mitchell is behind only Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan. The fact that Rizwan and Mitchell are up there is pretty cool. They're middle-order batters. They don't come in when the conditions are at their best, at least in one-day cricket. Even when they're in early, they're there because too many wickets have gone down and they need to repair things. Mitchell and Rizwan being that high up is testament to their skill of staying in the present and problem solving until they get the result they want.

Also, as Simon Doull notes on the broadcast, Mitchell has the highest average (53.60) of all New Zealand men's ODI players with at least 1000 runs.

Aus 175 for 0 in the first 19 overs, 9.2 RPO
NZ 129 for 2 in the first 19 overs, 6.8 RPO

Aus 213 for 10 in the last 31.2 overs, 6.8 RPO
NZ ?

At this stage, NZ have a 25.87% chance of winning this game. That tells you how this team is pretty decent at staying in the game, even in one as difficult as this is. That's why they focus so much on reading the conditions and trying to be adaptable. They want to stay in a game, or preferably stay ahead of it, and then see what unfolds.

Daryl Mitchell's great strength is his ability to access the V in front of the wicket. He's the leading run-scorer in that region at this World Cup. And he's batted two fewer innings than his closest competitor.

His reach his an asset. So is the fact that he is always looking for this shot. Whether he's facing pace or spin.

In the 14th over, when Pat Cummins hit a spot between the 4m and 6m, which is essentially the length that keeps the stumps in play - all this is to say it's a good ball - Mitchell opened up his shoulders and launched the Australia captain down the ground for four.

Even better against Adam Zampa in the 17th over. For the first three balls, the legspinner was hitting his areas, flatter in trajectory, on a good length, making the right-hander come forward, but not letting him drive. The fourth ball, Mitchell took a risk. He swept from middle stump and he would've been lbw had he missed it. He got four.

Mitchell's role at No. 4 is to counterattack. Either its his decision to do so, or the team's given him the licence because they've been seeing just how good he is at finding boundaries, once again, whether its pace or spin. He dismantled Kuldeep Yadav in NZ's last game and he's gone like this against Zampa in this one. The six was another straight hit.

If the Blackcaps there is any hope of them challenging this total, it rests on him batting deep into the innings.

This was the eighth over, Conway fell

This is the 10th over, Young falls

Both catches went to Mitchell Starc, who was at a very fine short fine leg to the left-hander and a very fine shrot third man for the right-hander.

Young was trying to steer a back of a length ball behind point for a single, but as previously noted in this live report, Hazlewood gets extra bounce and that extra bounce secures the top edge

Ian Bishop on the broadcast also picked out how Starc is fielding like a slipper. Normally in those positions, fielders would walk in to try and save singles. Starc, however, just stood on the edge of the 30-yard circle, feet shoulder-width apart, hands poised in front of him in the catching position.

Sometimes, especially with these three Australia quicks, it can feel like they get more out of the pitch than the opposition. A portion of this is scoreboard pressure. NZ are taking more risks because they need to find a way to keep up with the required rate.

Another reason is the height of the Aussie bowlers. And from that height, with as hard as they hit the pitch, they do get a little nip. Josh Hazlewood in particular has made that his great strength, more so in red-ball cricket, but he's brought that into his white-ball cricket as well. For more on his efforts in ODIs recently, enjoy this Sid Monga article.

And Hazlewood strikes! Conway's gone! NZ 61 for 1! That by the way looks increasingly like a plan. Starc was stationed at the finest of short fine legs. Almost a leg slip. Hazlewood was bowling around the wicket, back of a length and at the left-hander's hips. He was bowling to keep that catching fielder in play and immediately it pays off.

An innings of 388 began with a left-hand batter hitting a left-arm seamer for two fours in the over

Devon Conway keeps going against Josh Hazlewood too and it brings to focus his great strength in the one-day game. He power-hits through the off side.

Ahead of this World Cup, Shiva Jayaraman, our stats wiz, and I were researching this strength and we found that in particular he is extremely good at scoring runs through point and cover.

These were his numbers from IPL, Vitality Blast, Hundred and ODIs in the last three years prior to the start of the World Cup.

Australia bowled out for 388. The openers themselves made 175 of those in just 19 overs. Travis Head in his first ever World Cup game made his country's third-quickest World Cup century. And this was without any real preparation because he had been recovering from a broken hand.

This is the Australia that everyone expected at the World Cup and they're here. Everybody else has been put on notice.

Head also notes that towards the back end of his innings, he saw the pitch was taking spin, and that's how NZ bounced back, with Glenn Phillips bowling 10 on the trot and picking up three wickets. Adam Zampa, Head himself and Glenn Maxwell will be tough to face even without the monster scoreboard pressure they now have.

ESPNcricinfo's forecaster says NZ still have an 8.36% chance of winning. That looks a bit high. They'll have to pull off the second-highest chase in nearly 2300 games of ODI cricket. That's a puncher's chance if ever there was one.

It's been that kind of day. He's one of those whose had a catch go down off his bowling. He take a lot of pride in being a wicket-taker. That pasting he took with the new ball wouldn't have sat well with him. The mistakes in the field, whether he was bowling or not, wouldn't have sat well with him. He takes three wickets in the 49th over and he screams when he bowls Adam Zampa

There were two drops in that James Neesham over, the 48th of the innings. Pat Cummins is the batter who benefits. The first fairly simple for Rachin Ravindra. The second slightly harder for Glenn Phillips.

New Zealand have had a HORRIBLE day in the field. They dropped Head twice. They dropped Labuschagne once. Now they've dropped Cummins twice. And Australia are back to pushing 400!

Josh Inglis has eight runs off 13 balls against spin today. Against pace, he's 23 off 12.

Even in the innings that he played to cement his place in this XI, ahead of Alex Carey, the half-century against Sri Lanka, he made only 24 off 28 balls. It looked very noticeable that day that he wasn't picking Maheesh Theekshana off the hand. He kept playing everything off the back foot, even to balls pitched very very full. Here too he survived an lbw appeal on umpire’s call going back to a ball that didn’t really merit that

Australia are heading towards 350. They'll probably get there in the end, but they'll have to do so without Maxwell. Neesham takes him out and maybe turns this game from 370-380 to 350. That still looks a winning total on this pitch which has slowed down a bit.

From NZC: Lockie Ferguson is off the field after experiencing pain in his right Achilles while bowling. He won’t return to the field and will be further assessed.

Maxwell held court at the end of the Netherlands game, offering gems such as he is very aware of records like fastest fifty and fastest century. He called them "really cool."

Along the way, he explained his mindset about playing the reverse sweep. The way he spoke about it, that shot isn't a risk to him. What he said was, the field was up at third man and point. So he knew if he makes reasonable contact, he'd beat them over the top and he'd get four. Makes an alarming amount of sense, right?

That's what he's done here against Ravindra in the 42nd over. Those two fielders were up inside the circle again and he went over their heads back-to-back.

Maxwell launches into Santner as well in the 43rd over

Australia 175 for 0 in the first 19 overs
Australia 104 for 5 in the next 20 overs

Marnus Labuschagne's just gone. He could have been dismissed for 1 if Daryl Mitchell had had a little more trust in the Dharamsala outfield. Mitchell had already slid on it and his knee had got caught, that's the kind of situation that results in serious injury. So when an upper cut came in his direction and he had to sort of lean forward, he worried about injury instead of taking the catch and he dropped it.

Labuschagne fell for 18 so in that sense, it didn't cause too much hurt, but in another, it did. It gave Maxwell a better point of entry. Had Labuschange fell for 1, Maxwell would've been in in the 31st over. Instead, he came in in the 37th. That's when Maxwell has the licence and he's already used it, going reverse sweep before he'd faced even 10 balls

Against Netherlands, he came in at the 39th over and got a century.

He got his fifty in the 47th. In the 49th, he got his century.

That's how destructive he is. NZ know they need to take him out early.

Mitchell Marsh has hit only two fours in 51 balls. He's gone now. Bowled by Mitchell Santner for just 36.

In roughly that same time, if in a different format, Marsh hit 10 against New Zealand. That assault gave Australia their first T20 World Cup title.

So what's happened? He struck a century just last week, and found 19 boundaries in that innings.

The difference, ostensibly, is that he started against spin today as opposed to that game against Pakistan when he was opening the batting against Shaheen Afridi and Hasan Ali.

Pat Cummins mentioned at the toss that he expected the pitch will slow down as the game went on and there might already be evidence of that.

After 34 overs
Australia against pace: 121 runs off 72 balls, strike rate 159, no wickets
Australia against spin: 127 off 132 balls, strike rate, 95, three wickets

Adam Zampa, Travis Head, who struck a 59-ball century earlier today and Glenn Maxwell, who struck a 40-ball century earlier, will all have noted this trend

Australia may have slowed down just a bit in the middle overs, but that's probably because they don't want to burn out. They want to bat the full quota and get some 350-370 total and if they do that they might even set themselves up to chase net run-rate let alone victory!

His three wickets today: David Warner, Travis Head and Steven Smith.

He's also done well against Mitchell Marsh: 10 runs off 23 balls

He's bowled nine overs on the trot today, he's compensating for Matt Henry and Trent Boult who were whacked all around the park in the powerplay.

Boundaries hit of NZ's bowlers today
Henry, 3 overs: 4x4, 4x6
Boult, 5 overs: 3x4, 2x6
Ferguson, 3 overs: 3x4, 3x6
Santner, 6 overs: 4x4, 2x6
PHILLIPS, 10 OVERS, 3 FOR 37: 2x4, 0X6

Australia were 144 for 0 in 13 overs.

Phillips came on in the 14th and bowled 10 overs on the trot.

Australia have only scored 99 runs 19 overs since then.

Meanwhile, Lockie Ferguson has been off the field for almost 90 minutes, says Aaron Finch on the broadcast. That suggests an injury, he adds. No official word from the NZ team on that, of course.

After going for 32 runs in his first three overs, Santner has pulled things back, just 19 in his next three, and four of those were off the outside edge of Steven Smith's bat, beating the slip that was in place

Sidharth Monga: Santner doesn't have the late release of Jasprit Bumrah, the wristspin of Kuldeep Yadav or the height of Marco Jansen. He is a fingerspinner who has done a defensive job for far too long; who is now a kid in a candy shop because there are pitches with a little bit of purchase at this World Cup. Santner has drawn a false response every five balls in this tournament: pretty similar to Kuldeep, and behind Bumrah, Maharaj and Josh Hazlewood, who have been doing it once every four balls.

Santner has survived this long in limited-overs cricket primarily because of his pace variations. He has a wider range of pace variations than perhaps any other spinner: he can go from under 70kph to around 105kph without really settling on a "stock speed".

Phillips was a wicketkeeper at first. But he suffered a back injury that made it difficult for him to keep doing that job. He didn't like that. He's the kind of guy who wants to be involved in the game every ball. That's why he's such a good fielder. And it's a big part of why he's been concentrating on his bowling.

It's likely Phillips wouldn't have been called into play as much as he has in this World Cup if Michael Bracewell had been fit. But once that misfortune struck, NZ quickly made sure he had some overs under his belt before this tournament. He bowled a fair bit against England before coming to India.

Additionally, he has bowled only one full toss - that was today, to Mitchell Marsh - and one short ball - and that was at the start of the World Cup, against England. Phillips has the kind of control that is not normally seen among part-timers.

Bowled by Glenn Phillips, who is nominally a batter in the NZ line-up, but he's been the one who has dragged them back in this game.

Alex Malcolm, our reporter in Australia: This is what Australia were lanning all along.

There were a lot of eyebrows raised when the selectors elected to carry Travis Head in the squad despite his broken hand and the likelihood that he would be unavailable for the first five matches. But as good as the David Warner-Mitchell Marsh pairing had been, the Warner-Head pairing is next level.

Of all the great Australian opening pairs to have scored 1000 runs together in ODI cricket, Head and Warner are the best of them and the quickest in terms of strike-rate by a mile.

Head's return off a broken hand, having barely hit any balls for the last six weeks has been remarkable. There was no fear, no loss of power. Warner continued his ridiculous form in this tournament. They are both left-handers but they pose such different threats. Go full to Head and he'll launch you down the ground. Bowl short to Warner and he'll launch you square either side.

Matt Henry was a good match-up for Warner and Head took him down. Trent Boult was a dangerous match-up for Head and Warner took him down. Australia look a completely different side with these two at the top of the order and then Mitchell Marsh entering at No.3.

Alagappan Muthu: Head on a true pitch is just scary.

His strength is square of the wicket. On true pitches the ball comes on nicely and enables him to access those areas.

He’s also nimble with his footwork. There was a ball from Rachin Ravindra, left-arm spin from over the wicket, cramping him on leg stump.

But Head backed away, opened up his front hip and clattered it through cover.

He hits the ball so hard. There are no half-measures.

To come back from a broken hand and play an innings like this, that speaks to his preparation and mental strength and being switched on from the word go. Travis Head sits behind the Warners and the Smiths and the Labuschangnes in terms of following.

But all that seems to be changing. His arrival has really ignited this Australian challenge. The entire dugout was standing up in expectation of his century. That says within the team he is very highly regarded.

Oh, btw, David Warner fell for 81 off 65, caught and bowled by Glenn Phillips.

He was 70 off 35 when he didn't connect properly with flat-bat down the ground. Mitch Santner's ball coming off the pitch slightly slower than he expected might bave been the reason for his timing going off.

It's a chance - a tough chance - however Santner is capable of taking these. He dives to his right, in the direction of his followthrough, but to his wrong hand. It doesn't stick and he buries his head in the turf.

Austraia were 144 in the 13th over

NZ had to wait 14 overs for one without a boundary and its come off their part-timer, Glenn Phillips, only he has been working on his bowling tirelessly behind the scenes. His control and the way he always keeps the stumps in play is actually pretty good.

Head is given another life on 75 off 43, another really difficult chance, coming hard at Phillips at a very short midwicket. Phillips is a gun fielder and if he couldn't get it, it was coming too quickly. NZ have got a modicum of control now. No boundaries in 4.2 overs since the 13th.

Australia's 118 runs in the first ten overs are the joint third most by any team in men's ODIs where we have BBB data. It is also the second highest in men's ODI WCs, only behind 119 runs West Indies vs Canada in 2003.

It's carnage but also not really.

Because David Warner is out there and his shots aren't coming from a place of anger. They're coming from a place of experience. And there was one in particular that was just sheer genius.

NZ in dire straits for something to go their way turn to their fastest bowler Lockie Ferguson. His first ball is back of a length on a fifth stump line. Essentially the kind they should have been bowling more of. Except now Warner's eye is in. He's got a flow. And somehow he back-foot cover drives a six

He. back-foot. COVER DRIVES. a six. And the ball was almost 145kph.

In between that, as Ricky Ponting noted on the broadcast before a single run was scored today, Warner has made himself a threat to good length balls, by simply getting low in his stance. That's allowing himself to get under the ball more often than not and in the powerplay, when there are only two fielders outside the circle, all he has to do is go through with the shot, beat the 30-yard circle and he has a boundary. This is a batting clinic!

New Zealand are already using death-overs tactics. There are slower balls. There are yorkers. There are knuckle balls. And it's only the first powerplay! They're pushed right up against the wall here.

These numbers are for the first five overs of this match. They show that NZ are erring too full or too short.

Twenty six runs off seven full balls. says they're too straight or giving too much width.

Twenty two runs off 11 short or just short of a good length balls.

The missing ingredient there is the line. NZ have offered too much width. They've also been too straight. And both batters have capitalised, hitting square of the wicket lots. NZ haven't been able to camp on a good length on a fourth stump line.

This is a serious show of strength from Australia.

Against a serious strength from New Zealand.

Trent Boult and Matt Henry are the foundation of their bowling attack. Their gameplan revolves around these two new-ball bowlers taking early wickets.

But David Warner and Travis Head have been there long enough to see that the movement that was expected early this morning is just not there.

For a minimum of at least 4 innings played, Warner and Head have the highest average of all Australian opening partnerships in men's ODIs.

Head's second scoring shot was a boundary over Trent Boult's head, and it wasn't even a bad delivery. His third and fourth were sixes over deep midwicket as Henry completely loses the plot in a nine-ball over. Head's 17 off 5 after parachuting into the team for this game. Immediate impact!

That first over was a story of one player being very switched on and another not so much.

Matt Henry is a banker in the powerplay. It's always been his strength and he's only added to it by expanding his repertoire to force his way into this NZ team ahead of Tim Southee.

Except today, he's given width, which Warner pounced on. And he's been too short, which Warner pounced on.

NZ were expecting some movement in the air and off the pitch with the new ball and Henry hasn't taken advantage of that with his first six balls. Warner has.

Fun read: Me and my lil brother caught up with Tim Southee and Trent Boult earlier this month and we had them walk through memeory lane and it was a total laugh riot. Here is an excerpt.

Boult recalls his wedding, for which Southee was a groomsman. "Wouldn't say he played a huge role on the day…"

"I had to come back from the other side of the world," Southee says quietly.

Boult breaks out in a grin. "He did. He was in England playing cricket. It was August, middle of our winter basically. So of course, he made the financial journey to come all the way back home. On the record, I still owe him money for that flight. He's charging me interest."

Tom Latham has his parents in attendance today and they've brought him luck immediately. He's won the toss and his team will bowl first. That's what most teams have done in Dharamsala, except this is a day game and that decision has been influenced by the early morning moisture instead of the late evening dew. Jimmy Neesham comes in for an injured Mark Chapman (calf)

Pat Cummins says "its fine" that they're batting first, even if he agrees that there might be a fair bit of movement with the new ball up front. He's expecting the pitch to slow down later in the day. Travis Head is fit again and he comes for Cam Green. Meanwhile, Marcus Stoinis also has a minor calf problem so he's gone out.

Australia: 1 David Warner, 2 Travis Head, 3 Mitchell Marsh, 4 Steve Smith, 5 Marnus Labuschagne, 6 Josh Inglis (wk), 7 Glenn Maxwell, 8 Mitchell Starc, 9 Pat Cummins (capt), 10 Adam Zampa, 11 Josh Hazlewood

New Zealand: 1 Devon Conway, 2 Will Young, 3 Rachin Ravindra, 4 Tom Latham (capt & wk), 5 Daryl Mitchell, 6 Glenn Phillips, 7 Jimmy Neesham, 8 Mitchell Santner, 9 Matt Henry, 10 Lockie Ferguson, 11 Trent Boult

From Sidharth Monga: A lovely pre-winter morning in Dharamsala. The sun is out, the air is clean, the dhabas around the stadium are bustling. Parathas being made by the tens, tea is flowing non-stop, and they are having to double up as cloak rooms because the stadium won’t let people take bags in. Straightforward as the hill people generally are, they are not being opportunistic about it. They are not happy about having to look after the bags, but they are still not charging a fee. The college through which you walk to enter through Gate 3 has been given a day off, which is a bit of a shame because every time I walk through there I see only happy young faces, playing volleyball, basketball, chess, cricket. Friends, lovers, loafers, actual scholars all getting their first taste of sanctioned freedom in life. No uniforms, no one to tell them off if they choose to miss a class and loiter around.