New Zealand survive Mitchell Starc’s menace to tame bullish Australia

Australia’s fast-bowling destroyer almost brought his side an unlikely win in a World Cup match characterised by reckless batting and tension to the last

• Australia comeback falls short as New Zealand win by a wicket

• Michael Clarke blames ‘extremely poor’ batting on attacking mindset

New Zealand’s bowling against Australia looked very similar to their efforts against Scotland and England. The ball shot through the crease with marked swing. Bats were beaten, stumps were scattered, single-figure scores were marked as closed in the scorebook. Some late-innings biff dragged the total over three figures, but even then the batting side were scattered for 152.

For a while, New Zealand’s batting looked like their effort against England, when Brendon McCullum and Martin Guptill sent Steven Finn for 49 runs in two overs, in an assault so grievous you expected security to intervene. Later, New Zealand’s batting more resembled their effort against Scotland, when they lost seven wickets in a drunken stagger towards 143.

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source Sport | The Guardian http://ift.tt/1wxpU1P