Australia have handed the Black Caps their second loss in a row at the Cricket World Cup, winning their match at Lord’s by 86 runs.
The loss came despite a first innings hat trick by Trent Boult (Ngāti Porou, Ngāi Tahu and Ngā Te Rangi), who finished with figures of 4-51. The paceman picked up the wickets of Usman Khawja, Mitchell Starc and Jason Behrendorff in the 50th over to finish the Australian innings off.
Khawaja had earlier anchored the Australian innings with 88 after the found themselves for down for 81. Lockie Ferguson and Boult had combined to remove danger men David Warner and Steve Smith, but Khawaja combined with Alex Carey to put on a partnership of 107. It got the Australians through to 243 off their 50 overs, which looked entirely defendable on the slow and turning pitch.
Despite Boult’s heroics, Starc then took his revenge with the ball in hand. The Australian left armer had a sensational day, tearing through the Black Caps to record tournament-best figures of 5-26.
The Black Caps’ chase never got going, with Behrendorff removing Martin Guptill and Henry Nicholls, who had replaced the struggling Colin Munro. Kane Williamson and Ross Taylor then put on a 55-run partnership to somewhat steady the innings, but then Starc had the Black Caps’ captain caught behind for 40.
That, unfortunately, was as good as it got for the Black Caps. Taylor followed soon after, then Tom Latham, Colin de Grandhomme and Mitch Santner came and went without giving the scorers too much trouble.
Starc then emulated Boult by finishing off the last three wickets, he now has 23 wickets for the tournament and is in prime position to break fellow Australian Glenn McGrath’s 2007 record of 27 in one World Cup.
The biggest issue now for the Black Caps is that they are still yet to really figure out just what their best XI actually is. The top order remains a real concern, and needs to be addressed before the business end of the tournament. Their final round robin game is against England on Wednesday night in Durham.
Australia 243/9 (50.0 overs) - U Khawaja 88, A Carey 71; T Boult 4-51 L Ferguson 2-49
Black Caps 157 all out (43.4 overs) - K Williamson 40, R Taylor 30; M Starc 5-26, J Behrendorff 2-31