Australia vs New Zealand, 2020: 1st ODI – New Zealand's struggles at the SCG, Australia's dominance over New Zealand and more stats

Australia continued their unbeaten run in the home season as they took a 1-0 lead in the 3-match ODI series against New Zealand. The opening pair of David Warner (67) and Aaron Finch (60) put on 124 for the first wicket on a slow track. The batting became a bit tricky as the Aussies struggled to accelerate and were limited to 258/7. The New Zealand innings crawled around 3 runs an over for the first 20 overs. The run-scoring wasn’t easy by the half-way stage with the required rate reaching 7. The Blackcaps were eventually bowled out for 187 in 41 overs and fell 72 runs short of the target.

All the statistical highlights from Australia’s comfortable 71-run win in the first ODI:

A tough venue for New Zealand:

7* – New Zealand has not won any of their last seven ODI matches played at the Sydney Cricket Ground. The Blackcaps lost six of those seven ODIs while another game ended without a result. New Zealand played two T20Is and a Test at this venue around the same time and lost in those three games as well.

Australia’s dominance against New Zealand:

8 – New Zealand’s win-less streak in the ODI format on the Australian soil now extends to 8 matches. The Kiwis lost seven of those eight matches while another game ended without a result. New Zealand also failed to win any of their last 12 International matches in Australia.

92 – Australia now has defeated New Zealand in 92 ODI matches; the joint-most ODI wins for any team against an opponent. Pakistan also won 92 matches against Sri Lanka in the ODI format.

End of Australia’s losing streak:

5 – Australia brought an end to their 5-match losing streak in the ODI format. They lost all the five ODIs they played between the SCG ODI and the 10-wicket win against India at the Wankhede Stadium.

A low total for the Aussies:

258/7 – The total of 258/7 is the lowest total that Australia has posted in more than six years in a home ODI despite batting full 50 overs. The last instance of them recording a lower total after playing full 50 overs was 217/9 against England during the 2014 Adelaide ODI in January.

Warner-Finch hand a good start:

10 – David Warner and Aaron Finch now have shared ten century partnership in the ODI format; the 4th player with 10+ century stands for Australia in ODI cricket. Adam Gilchrist and Matthew Hayden shared 16 hundred partnerships while Michael Clarke and Ricky Ponting had 11 century stands between them. Hayden and Ponting’s pair also shared ten 100+ partnerships in this format.

Mitch Marsh does Mitch Marsh things:

3/5 – Mitchell Marsh took 3/29 in his seven overs and scored 27 runs in the SCG ODI. This was the 5th instance of an Australian scoring 25+ and picking up 3+ wickets in a Men’s ODI in the last five years. Marsh alone achieved this double on three occasions.

Starc and Boult get no success:

1 – Trent Boult went wicketless for the first time in his ODI career against Australia. He picked up 29 wickets in 11 ODIs before this game against the Aussies by picking at least one wicket every match.

2 – Only the 2nd time Mitchell Starc failed to pick a wicket in 10 ODIs he played against New Zealand. Other such instance was during the Champions Trophy 2017 match. Starc picked 21 wickets against the Blackcaps thus far in this format.