The New Zealand cricket team played their first T20 match against Australia at Auckland on Feb 17, 2005, when Australia toured New Zealand. That was the debut of the T20 format or shortest format of the game in the World’s cricket. Stephen Fleming was the team leader of New Zealand while Ricky Ponting led the Australian team. The coin was flipped and Australia decided to bat first after winning the toss.
Australian opener Adam Gilchrist and Michael Clarke were sent on the pitch to open the bat and Daryl Tuffey got the new ball in hand to open the attack. Australia did not get a good start and lost their both openers at the score of 21 runs only. Daryl Tuffey got the first breakthrough for New Zealand when he dismissed Michael Clarke in the very first over.
In the 2nd over of the match, Kyle Mills took the wicket of Adam Gilchrist. Then Andrew Symonds and Ricky Pointing tried to cover up the damage and Symonds played aggressively to release the pressure built up by Kiwis. He added 32 runs from just 13 balls with four 4s and two 6s but could not stay longer and was sent back by Kyle Mills. Damien Martyn came out to join Pointing but could not last long on the pitch.
Australia was maintaining the run rate of over 10 per over but lost 4 main wickets in 54 runs. Then Ricky Ponting and Simon Katich played carefully and took the score to 137 runs and built up a partnership of 83 runs for the 5th wicket. Afterward, Michael Hussey’s knock of 31 runs from just 15 balls helped them to cross the 200 runs landmark and added 214 runs on the scoreboard.
Ricky Ponting was fabulous throughout the entire inning and made unbeaten 98 runs from 55 balls, just missing the first 100 from 2 runs in the maiden T20I. Kyle Mills took 3 wickets for 44 runs for New Zealand. New Zealand got the target of 215 runs to win the New Zealand first T20 international match.
Brendon McCullum and Stephen Fleming stepped out to the middle to chase the target and Brett Lee, one of the fastest bowlers of that time, got the new ball in hand to stop Kiwis. New Zealand started well and had made 49 runs without any loss in 5 overs. Then Michael Kasprowicz in the 6th over dismissed Stephen Fleming, and thus got the first breakthrough for Australia.
On the very next ball, he also sent back Mathew Sinclair, two wickets in two balls brought the Kiwis under pressure. Afterward, Scott Styris came on the pitch to Brendon McCullum but Kasprowicz was in a different mood and he hunted McCullum in 7.2 overs. Kasprowicz had sent back all three top-order batsmen of New Zealand.
On the other side, Scott Styris was playing well and tried to cover up the damage but no other batsman supported him much. The entire team was wiped out at 170 runs, Styris tried and added 66 off 39 but it was not enough to win the match. Kasprowicz took 4 wickets in the match and broke the backbone of New Zealand. Australia won the match by 44 runs and Ricky Ponting was the Man of the Match for his match-winning 98*.
Result: New Zealand Lost the Match by 44 runs Scorecard