Be afraid, England and Wales 2019. The Aussies are coming. Or rather, the Aussies are still coming, after an 86-run defeat of a New Zealand team who seemed consumed by the occasion at Lord’s.
At times in the Black Caps’ attempts to chase 243 this felt a bit like a Sunday morning junior age group game. Steve Smith sent down some weird, wonky all-sorts. Wickets were greeted with jokey huddles. It took the return of Mitchell Starc to restore a sense of World Cup order, figures of five for 26 reflecting a spell of brutal, high-grade, white-ball fast-bowling that blew away the tail.
Victory leaves Australia on their own at the top of the group stage table with seven wins from eight, and with some of their own question marks finding an answer or two. They had some help along the way, not least from Kane Williamson’s diffident captaincy.
On a sun-baked north London day New Zealand had first shown how to beat Australia; then almost immediately they showed how to fail to beat Australia. Exposing that thin-looking middle order had always looked a plan. Failing to punch through by taking off your best bowlers was where the game got away, captured by the sight of the skipper wheeling out seven overs of mid-innings part-time leg-spin.
Trent Boult even had time at the end of Australia’s innings to conjure a largely pointless World Cup hat-trick. Instead it was a gutsy, occasionally streaky 107-run sixth-wicket partnership between Usman Khawaja and Alex Carey that decided this game.
From the start Lord’s was a place of Trans-Tasman good cheer as the grey shroud of the last few weeks lifted. Australia had won the toss and elected to bat. In any list of David Warner’s top five career sledges, the line “You’re not f-ing facing Trent Boult’s 80mph half-volleys now, mate” – yelled at Joe Root as he took guard during the Cardiff Ashes Test of 2015 – might just make it on grounds of subtlety alone.
This time it was Warner’s turn to face the Boult music, a tricky prospect at the start of a heat-hazed day. Boult’s third over saw Aaron Finch out lbw falling over an inswinger.
Colin de Grandhomme shared the new ball, toiling in manfully from the nursery end like a man with a two-seat sofa strapped to his back. But it was Lockie Ferguson who made the most telling incision. Ferguson was a joy to watch, a thrillingly athletic fast bowler with an air of the old school adventurer about him, so much so you half expect to see him handing the umpire his fedora and bull-whip before every over.
Here Ferguson took out Warner and Steve Smith for two runs in seven balls. First he bounced out Warner. Smith was booed on. And Ferguson soon did for him too, thanks to another moment of brilliance.
Smith pulled another short one, middling it with a lovely, sweet clump. At short backward square leg Martin Guptill dived full length and stuck out a hand. Eventually he stood up, raised his hand and threw a ball – apparently the same one – into the sky. It was a catch that will look good in replay. In real time it was a moment to stop the days and spin it back on its axis. James Neesham entered the attack and 81 for three became 81 for four as Marcus Stoinis was caught behind, before Neesham held a one-handed caught and bowled just above the grass to get rid of Glenn Maxwell.
New Zealand had Australia wobbling around the ring at five for 92 after 21 overs. But Khawaja found a partner in Carey, who clipped and carved at assorted short-pitch offerings as New Zealand struggled to adapt their length to his punchy style. The fifty partnership arrived off 51 balls, at the same time as Khawaja’s own half-century, an innings that will be doubly satisfying on a day when no one else in Australia’s top six got to 25.
Carey inside-edged to the pavilion fence to reach a battling 51 off 41 balls. There is a jaunty fearlessness to his cricket. Best of all he averages 50 now at No 7 for Australia and has made that tricky slot a position of strength in the last month.
There will be regrets for New Zealand. Not least in Boult’s disappearance from the attack until the 42nd over. Their chase never really got started. Jason Behrendorff dismissed both openers and a 20-over score of 61 for two deteriorated to 157 all out as only Williamson seemed to have the skill to score on a crabby pitch.
Australia were talked down at the World Cup’s start as a team overly reliant on five star players. At Lord’s it was the underrated back-up cast who dug in to turn this game, maintaining the air of a team finding other gears as this tournament narrows towards its end point.
