AUSTRALIA KEEP NEW ZEALAND TO 238!!!
New Zealand enjoyed a quick start from Brendon McCullum and a brisk finish from Daryl Tuffey but in between struggled desperately and posted a below-par 238 in the fourth ODI. Victory for Australia would hand them the Chappell-Hadlee Trophy and they will be very confident at the halfway mark after sending New Zealand in for the second consecutive time.
Nathan Hauritz picked up three wickets and there were two each to Shane Watson, James Hopes and Mitchell Johnson as New Zealand's reworked middle order stalled and failed to strike a boundary for 22 overs. When James Franklin (10) was unluckily bowled off his leg attempting a sweep off Hauritz, they were 177 for 7 and a sub-200 total was on the cards.
It was only through some entertaining hitting from Tuffey that they pushed on as he launched three sixes in a row off Hauritz, over square leg, midwicket and straight down the ground, in an over that cost 22. Tuffey, who in 87 previous ODIs had only hit one six, also cleared the boundary off Watson and finished with his highest one-day international score of 34.
His mauling of Hauritz encouraged New Zealand to take the batting Powerplay but when Gareth Hopkins edged behind off Watson from the first ball of it, they were back in trouble. Tuffey was snared by a brilliantly sharp return catch from Ryan Harris and 19 from nine deliveries off Shane Bond helped, but New Zealand were dismissed with 35 balls to spare.
It was a disappointing result after a promising start in which McCullum and Martin Guptill - Peter Ingram was dropped for this match - raced to 63 for 0 in the eighth over. McCullum was quick to put Australia on the back foot and early in his innings pulled Ryan Harris for a flat six that landed in the Eden Park construction area.
He followed with a six flicked over square leg off a free-hit from Doug Bollinger, whose first three overs leaked 30, while at the other end Guptill was finding the boundary with relative ease. Guptill was especially strong through and over cover as the Australians erred in line and gave him too much width.
However, the area brought Guptill's downfall when for the second time in the series he was caught at short cover, this time for 30 from 22 balls with an attempted drive off Watson. McCullum and Ross Taylor continued to threaten Australia with a 57-run stand, although in reality it was nearly all McCullum.
He slowed his rate after the loss of Guptill but once Taylor was settled, began to attack again with sixes over square leg and cover off Johnson and Watson. But Taylor wasn't quite as fluent and had eased to 15 from 37 deliveries when he targeted the short square-boundary with a flick off James Hopes only to be well caught by Michael Hussey running around from deep midwicket.
That piece of class fielding sparked Australia and they collected five wickets in 11 overs as the middle order struggled. The debutant Shanan Stewart went too hard too soon and was caught at long-on off Hauritz for 4, before the key wicket of McCullum, who chipped Hauritz tamely to short midwicket for 61.
A procession of wickets followed. Scott Styris misjudged Hopes' slower ball and was caught and bowled for 8, Daniel Vettori was promoted to No. 6 and was plumb lbw to Johnson for 11, before Hopkins and Franklin also departed. New Zealand have strengthened their attack for this game, and they'll need all their bowlers to fire to stay in the series.
