Australia celebrate after beating New Zealand 2-0
Image courtesy of: Zimbio
Australia were crowned winners of the first-ever day-night Test match in history as they snuck past New Zealand by three wickets on the third day of the third Test in Adelaide.
Even though New Zealand left-arm pace bowler Trent Boult claimed a five-wicket haul, Australia still managed to get across the finish line thanks to Shaun Marsh’s timely return to form with a solid innings of 49.
Starting off the day on 116/5, debutant Mitchell Santner was the only New Zealand batsman to make a decent contribution with the bat as he scored a career-best 45.
Doug Bracewell chipped in with a valuable 27 not out lower down the order as New Zealand were bowled out for 208, which set Australia 187 to win.
Josh Hazlewood was easily the pick of the bowlers as he finished with six wickets, while Mitchell Marsh snapped up three and Nathan Lyon chipped in with one.
Hazlewood finished with career-best figures of 6-70 off 24.5 overs
Image courtesy of: Zimbio
Chasing 187 to win, Australia got off to an iffy start as Joe Burns fell early before David Warner and captain Steven Smith joined him in the pavilion a little later on.
Adam Voges and Mitchell Marsh both scored 28 runs to take Australia ever closer to their target.
But, with Boult ripping through Australia’s batting line-up, Shaun Marsh put his dismal form behind him and scored 49 off 117 balls, which included six boundaries before he was dismissed by Boult.
Marsh hit six boundaries during his knock of 49
Image courtesy of: Zimbio
Despite Peter Nevill falling for 10 shortly after, Australia managed to crawl their way across the finish line with three wickets to spare.
Boult was the most successful bowler with five wickets, while Bracewell and Santner claimed one wicket each.
Boult finished with figures of 5-60 off 16 overs
Image courtesy of: Zimbio
New Zealand skipper Brendon McCullum was gutted to have come so close to pulling off a come-from-behind win, and said: “Was an outstanding game of cricket, completely contrasting to what we had seen previously in the series. The crowd supported it, and as an experiment it went off well. You’re only ever two balls away from being back in the game, so we always kept believeing, unfortunately we came up short but we can shown fighting characteristics in defeat.”
Smith was delighted to have won the series 2-0, and said: “Was obviously a tight finish, great for cricket, last couple of days have been amazing, an exceptional event. It’s been great, a bit different from the first two matches dominated by bat, it brought the bowlers into the game, under lights. If you got yourself in you could still score runs. I just thought if Starc came in and hit one out of the screws that would be it. Great to see Shaun score runs in his first game back.”
Hazlewood was named Man of the Match, and said: “It was obviously entertaining cricket, harder to bat at night with the ball swinging, very exciting Test, crowds were unbelievable as well. It was more enjoyable to bowl at night, especially if the ball was a bit newer, there was grass on the wicket which helped.”