New Zealand vs Australia, 2021: Third T20I - Ashton Agar’s magical figures, Glenn Maxwell’s amazing feat and more stats

Australia have defeated New Zealand in the third T20I by 64 runs at the Westpac Stadium. They lost the initial two matches but have made a good comeback to keep the series alive. The host team won the toss earlier and invited Australia to bat first. The visitors had a good match with the bat as their captain Aaron Finch slammed a wonderful half-century. Finch scored 69 runs off 44 balls with the help of 8 fours and 2 sixes.

Glenn Maxwell set the stage on fire in the final overs as he smacked 70 runs off only 31 balls. He hit 8 fours and 5 sixes in his fiery knock. Australia posted 208/4 in their quota of 20 overs.

Chasing the total, New Zealand were bundled out for 144 runs in 17.1 overs. Ashton Agar showed his magic with the ball by taking 6 wickets in his 4 overs for 30 runs. Debutant Riley Meredith also impressed taking 2 wickets for 24 runs. Ashton Agar was given the Player of the Match award for his amazing performance. 

Let’s look at important stats and numbers after the end of the third T20I between Australia and New Zealand:

6 – Ashton Agar registered the best bowling figures (6/30) in a T20I innings for Australia in this match. Earlier best performance of 5/24 also came from him against South Africa in 2020. Overall, this was the fifth-best bowling performance in T20Is.

5 – Ashton Agar took the second fifer of his T20I career, and became the first Aussie bowler to achieve this milestone. Apart from him, 5 more bowlers have achieved this feat.

92 – Glenn Maxwell smashed 5 sixes in his innings, and his six tallies in T20Is now read 92. He surpassed David Warner (89 sixes) during his innings and is only behind Aaron Finch (99 sixes) among Australian players.  

25 – Glenn Maxwell completed his half-century in only 25 balls in the innings. Among players with most T20I half-centuries in 25 or fewer balls, Maxwell is now at the joint second spot. Rohit Sharma with 5 such fifties is at the top.

28 – Glenn Maxwell slammed 28 runs in one over against James Neesham in his superb knock. Among Aussie players hitting most runs in a single over, he is now at the second spot after Ricky Ponting (30 runs).

28 – James Neesham’s over of 28 runs is the joint third most expensive over by a Black Caps bowler in T20Is.

60 – James Neesham conceded 60 runs in his overs. This is the second most expensive spell by a Kiwi bowler after Ben Wheeler who conceded 64 runs against Australia in 2018. 

25 – Martin Guptill hit 3 sixes in his 43-run innings after which his six tallies against Australia has risen to 25. He has now reached the top spot in this regard surpassing Virat Kohli (22 sixes).