b unit - yes I am in melb -- and no thanks! im not watching 15minutes worth of cricket... and ive ripped out the channel 9 button on my tv remote for the next few weeks until they get that boring crap off the tv! id honestly get more entertainment watching the bold and the beautiful
dude, you missed a classic match, won by 6 wickets (with 7 balls remaining), get that button back in by sunday, nz only needs one more win to take the series and next game is sunday, in case you miss it i'll let you know the results on monday
Here's a report on game 2
A confident New Zealand cricket team will try to ride their snowballing momentum into a Chappell-Hadlee Trophy clincher on Sunday after back-to-back trans-Tasman wins.
An outstanding bowling performance, an unbeaten 61 from Grant Elliott and key contributions from Ross Taylor, Brendon McCullum and Neil Broom ushered in a six-wicket victory over Australia in game two at the Melbourne Cricket Ground last night.
Chasing just 226, Elliott and Broom (25 not out) added an unbroken 50 off 44 balls to cruise home with seven balls to spare before a fair smattering of delirious Kiwis in the small crowd of 28,251. In turn, a confidence-sapped Australia slumped to their fifth consecutive ODI defeat.
New Zealand fly to Sydney today to try and wrap up the five-match series early, and captain Daniel Vettori said a buoyant dressing room suggested they were a big chance.
"It's really good for young guys like (Martin) Guptill and Broom, they haven't lost a game in New Zealand colours so those sort of feelings are starting to swirl around the dressing room," Vettori said.
"We're starting to feel what it's like to win. It's only been three in a row but there's some good confidence in the team and we're just hoping we can capitalise on that.
"We haven't put together a complete performance yet, if we can aspire to that hopefully we can win the series."
Vettori hailed paceman Kyle Mills' "outstanding" leadership of the bowling unit, taking one for 11 in his opening six-over spell, as they restricted Australia to 225 for five, with 250 appearing a par total.
With regular captain Ricky Ponting taking a two-game rest, stand-in Michael Clarke led the way with 98 while fellow senior man Michael Hussey scored 75 after they slumped to 66 for three.
Iain O'Brien returned to bowl Clarke two short of a century, after he'd whacked him a painful blow on the toe, then also removed Hussey to take two for 48 while Vettori and fellow spinner Patel again applied the brakes.
Clarke was named man of the match despite Elliott guiding home the victory.
Said Clarke: "We were probably 20-30 short and I take responsibility for that. If I can turn 90s into 130s then that's a different game, particularly on that wicket."
New Zealand were always marginally ahead in their runchase thanks to McCullum's grafting 43 and Taylor's 47, continuing a golden run of form for the New Zealand No 4.
Then Elliott stepped up to notch his highest ODI score after a scratchy eight off 31 balls in Perth, adding 72 with Taylor then seeing it home with Broom, who cracked 25 not out off 21.
Playing his 13th ODI, the allrounder topped his previous best of 56 against England in Bristol and hooked the winning runs off Ben Hilfenhaus.
"It wasn't that comfortable -- the wicket wasn't outstanding so 226 was a challenge and we knew Australia would come at us hard," Vettori said.
"I was really pleased with the maturity of McCullum and Taylor to get us to a certain point, then Elliott and Broom with 15-16 games between them, they looked so composed and so mature."
Vettori felt the SCG pitch, often slow and low, would suit New Zealand's bid for 3-0 but expected a fired-up Australian response.
Clarke meanwhile insisted his team were still focused in the midst of a form slump, with Ponting on the sidelines.
"I'm very confident the boys are 100 percent switched on, we're just getting outplayed.
"New Zealand are playing good cricket and they're a very good one-day team. Their bowling has performed very well and set their batters up."