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New Zealand set Australia a daunting task in their T20 World Cup opener on Saturday, putting 200 runs on the board — and things could not have gone much worse for the defending champions who lost by 89 runs.
Unfortunately for Australia, it was a combination of early luck and some fielding brilliance from the Black Caps that led to two of their dismissals.
The first saw David Warner depart in freakish fashion after he inside edged a Tim Southee delivery onto his leg, then accidentally hitting the ball again that then went into the stumps.
“That is freakishly bad for David Warner,” Ian Smith said in commentary.
“Cannot believe it. Simply cannot believe it.”
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It did not get much better from there for Australia, with Aaron Finch and Mitchell Marsh departing soon, although there was a brief glimmer of hope when Marcus Stoinis came out.
The power hitter can certainly pile on the runs in quick succession but Stoinis was only able to manage just seven runs from 14 balls before being dismissed.
And this time there was not much the Australian could have done, with simply sensational fielding from Glenn Phillips seeing Stoinis off.
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“You’ve got to be kidding me, how good is that,” Simon Doull said in commentary.
“Superman,” added Shane Watson.
“Mitch Santner, slower, wider, slightly out of Marcus Stoinis’ power zone. He would have felt like he got a good piece of that but what an athlete. Goodness me, New Zealand are on their game tonight.
“You are joking. That’s what dreams are made of, being able to catch something like that.”
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