Hosts lay down WCup markers
Print Edition
CO-HOSTS Australia and New Zealand both enjoyed dominating wins as they launched the World Cup with a pair of crushing victories yesterday.
In the first match of the 2015 tournament, New Zealand beat Sri Lanka by 98 runs at Christchurch’s Hagley Oval.
Hours later, however, Australia thrashed arch-rival England by the even bigger margin of 111 runs in a day/night clash at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
Australia opener Aaron Finch, on his home ground, compiled the 2015 World Cup’s first century with a blistering innings of 135, having been dropped before he had scored by Chris Woakes off James Anderson.
Finch’s knock, which featured 12 fours and three sixes was the cornerstone of Australia’s 342 for nine, with England paceman Steven Finn’s hat-trick — another first at this World Cup — all but irrelevant.
Medium-pacer Mitchell Marsh, like Finch making his World Cup debut, then starred with the ball to take five for 33 as England was dismissed for 231 despite James Taylor’s gutsy 98 not out.
“Aaron Finch rose to the occasion,” said Australia stand-in captain George Bailey, who tried to ensure he was more than a temporary replacement for the injured Michael Clarke with 55 in an innings where Glenn Maxwell smashed 66.
“We want great innings and to turn them into match-winning knocks and that’s definitely what we got today.
“Mitchell Marsh was outstanding, he broke the game open for us.”
England skipper Eoin Morgan flopped again with the bat as he was out for his fourth duck in five innings.
New Zealand cemented its status as a genuine contender for the World Cup with a comprehensive victory over 1996 champion Sri Lanka, the losing finalist at the last two editions.
Co-host New Zealand piled up 331-6 after losing the toss at a chilly Hagley Oval, with skipper Brendon McCullum (65) and Kane Williamson (57) laying the foundations before all-rounder Corey Anderson smashed 75 off just 46 balls at the finish.
The most astonishing feature of the innings, however, was that Sri Lanka spearhead Lasith Malinga, went wicketless in an expensive 10-over spell costing 84 runs.
Sri Lanka was well-placed at 124-1 but its innings fell away, with all-rounder Anderson taking two for 18.
New Zealand had beaten Sri Lanka 4-2 in a preceding home one-day international series and McCullum said: “It was a really good performance. We’ve waited such a long time for this match and you hope the form you had leading into it will stack up.”
One highlight for Sri Lanka was that Kumar Sangakkara scored the 12 runs he needed to go into second place on the list of highest one-day international run-scorers, passing Australia’s Ricky Ponting, who made 13,704 runs before he retired. India legend Sachin Tendulkar tops the list for most ODI runs with a mammoth 18,426.
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