Australia complete clean sweep of T20I series beating NZ in rain marred 3rd T20I

 

Australia whitewashed New Zealand in the 3 match T20I series by winning the rain shortened 3rd game by 27 runs by DLS method.

Batting first  Australia lost Smith (4) early to Milne but Travis Head  played a typically aggressive but chancy innings , scoring both of edges and middle of the bat before finally getting out for 33. Rain delay in between the innings  reduced the match overs to 15 which prompted Short (27) and Maxwell (20) to play explosive shots while Inglis (14*) and David (8*) provided the finishing touches but at 118/4 off 10.4 overs the rain intervened again .

At rain stoppage New Zealand was given a DLS target of 126 in 10 overs . Some fine bowling by the Aussie quicks Starc , Ellis & Spencer Johnson restricted the Kiwis to a great extent . Allen (13) , Young (14) & Siefert (2) fell cheaply . Glenn Phillips struck 40 in 24 balls and Chapman made 17 but it was far from enough to reach the stiff target as New Zealand ended at 98/3 in 10 overs and Australia won by 27 runs to take the series 3-0 . Mathew Short was the player of the match while Mitch Marsh was the player of the series .