New Zealand v Australia, Twenty20 LIVE: Hazlewood, Dwarshuis strike after Australia bowl first

After he missed a chunk of international cricket to play the Hundred, Stoinis’ seamers are introduced by Marsh.

His third ball is short and not particularly quick and Robinson short arms a flat pull shot that carries for six to straight midwicket.

Two balls later and a wide delivery is carved away to the boundary. Fifteen from the over and New Zealand have recovered to 3-49 from the six-over Powerplay.

Hazlewood’s second over passes without a wicket but only goes for seven runs.

When Dwarshuis comes back, Mitchell gets a fortunate boundary through an inside edge past the stumps and down to fine leg.

Mitchell is more authoritative a couple balls later when he launches into Dwarshuis and manages to clear the boundary rope against the sea breeze.

Hazlewood bowls his third over tidily for figures of 1-16 so far.

Wicket! Wicket!

Devon Conway and Robinson trade singles before Conway runs at Dwarshuis and loses his middle stump!

That was not a particularly clever shot by one of the most accomplished New Zealand batters, as Dwarshuis alway gets a little bit of swing early on.

Mark Chapman’s first ball is down the leg side but has he got a touch? Marsh reviews and there’s a spike on Snicko! New Zealand are in all sort and Dwarshuis is on a hat-trick. The hat-trick ball to Daryl Mitchell is too wide, but 3-8 after two overs is the stuff of Australian dreams.

Wicket!

Hazlewood’s first ball beats Seifert for pace and hits him on the body, but his second is wider and disappears rapidly through cover for four.

Third ball is a little straighter and Seifert clumps it straight to Marsh at mid-off! That’s a big blow for Australia as Seifert is a key for the Black Caps at the top.

Tim Robinson survives the rest of the over.

Gordon Carey died a few days ago after battling leukemia for some years, and his son Alex will be donning the gloves for Australia very much in his honour.

Gordon Carey’s health battles meant that he was not always able to travel to see Alex play, including for his Test debut in Brisbane in November 2021.

“Dad’s been not only a mate but a coach of mine growing up, a mentor,” Carey said at the time. “He’ll be watching. No doubt he’ll be on the phone there, and I’ll get a message probably the night before the game telling me what to do.

“He’s super proud, as is mum. But unfortunately, he’s going through a bit of a battle.”

Tom Decent spoke to Nathan Lyon at Cricket NSW headquarters earlier today.

Lyon has warned England they would be foolish to overlook a frontline spinner for this summer’s Ashes, insisting Australia will be ready to inflict more pain on the tourists.

Australia’s greatest off-spinner said he was not surprised by England’s squad announcement last week, which included Will Jacks as back-up to Shoaib Bashir, but featured no other slow-bowling options.

England are weighing up a pace-heavy attack – spearheaded by Jofra Archer – for the marquee series starting on November 21 in Perth.

Lyon, unveiled on Wednesday as NSW’s new Sheffield Shield captain for the side’s opening match in Perth on Saturday, said ignoring a spinner would be a mistake despite history showing visiting spinners generally have a tough time in Australia.

“You’re asking the spinner if they want to pick a spinner? For me, you’re picking a spinner in every side because the variation changes the tempo of the game,” Lyon said.

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Alana King should play a key role for the Australians as they try to defend the women’s ODI title won in New Zealand in 2022, but as ever it is tight for places in Alyssa Healy’s team.

With left-arm spinner Sophie Molineux back from injury, and fellow leg-spinner Georgia Wareham admired within the set-up for her batting ability, King’s prolific wicket-taking over the past three years may not be enough to guarantee her place.

The Australians are expecting flat wickets in India so may want to extend their batting order, whereas in Sri Lanka later in the tournament, those pitches may spin more.

If King not being guaranteed of a place in the side sounds harsh, it’s another reminder of the incredible depth in the Australian women’s team, whose members are highly motivated to retain the ODI cup won in New Zealand in 2022 after stumbling to early elimination from the T20 tournament last year in Dubai.

Back then, the 29-year-old King was also left out, but she used her baseball mindset to avoid dwelling too much on the snub, and went on to play perhaps the match of her life in the pink-ball women’s Ashes Test at the MCG in March.

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Hello and welcome to our coverage of the first T20 between Australia and New Zealand at the Bay Oval in Mount Maunganui, where Mitch Marsh’s team will bowl first after winning the toss.

This game is part of the buildup to next year’s T20 World Cup in India, but there are some big names missing for both sides.

Australia lost Josh Inglis to a hamstring problem before the trip, then Glenn Maxwell with a broken arm after he was hit by a fiercely struck ball from Mitch Owen. The Black Caps are missing Rachin Ravindra after the left-hander suffered a nasty facial laceration after colliding with a boundary board during a training drill.

Ravindra passed concussion tests but needed significant patch-up work.

“We’re all really disappointed for Rachin to be forced to miss the series,” New Zealand coach Rob Walter said. He sustained a major laceration to his upper lip and nose area which required specialist and intricate stitching and will take time to heal.

“Rachin is obviously an important player for us, but his health and wellbeing is our top priority, and so the decision was made to send him home to recover with an eye to being available for the England series in two weeks’ time.”

Jimmy Neesham, who played a starring role in the 2019 World Cup final at Lord’s, has replaced Ravindra in th squad. Some of the other missing Kiwis include Mitchell Santner (abdominal injury), Will O’Rourke (back), Glenn Phillips (groin), Finn Allen (foot), Adam Milne (ankle), Lockie Ferguson (hamstring) and Kane Williamson (unavailable).

New Zealand: Tim Seifert, Devon Conway, Tim Robinson, Daryl Mitchell, Mark Chapman, Bevon Jacobs, Michael Bracewell (capt), Zak Foulkes, Kyle Jamieson, Matt Henry, Jacob Duffy

Australia: Travis Head, Mitchell Marsh (capt), Matt Short, Tim David, Alex Carey, Marcus Stoinis, Mitch Owen, Ben Dwarshuis, Xavier Bartlett, Adam Zampa, Josh Hazlewood.

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