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Super Smith takes Aussies to 1-0 lead

Skipper's record-breaking ton and stunning catch help hosts to strong win over Kiwis

The scorecard: Australia 8-324 (Smith 164) beat New Zealand 256 (Martin Guptill 114, Hazlewood 3-49) by 68 runs.

The match in a tweet: SUPER SMITH! A superb century and a stunning catch from the Aussie skipper powered the hosts to a 68-run win.

When you're on, you're on: Smith

The knock

Steve Smith take a bow. The Australia captain posted a new career-best with 164, the highest score at the SCG (beating AB de Villiers’ 162) and the equal highest ODI score by an Australian skipper (joining Ricky Ponting). It was a spectacular knock that began in the first over when Aaron Finch was bowled for a duck and ended 47 overs later when the fidgety right-hander fell looking for his 15th boundary. Smith rode his luck – dropped on 13 and could have been out lbw had New Zealand reviewed – and cashed in in front of his family and friends at his home ground. As good as the knock was, and it was a beauty, it wasn’t his best highlight of the night.

Smith breaks SCG record with brilliant 164

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The catch

Simply stunning. Full-stretch. Wrong-handed. Smith pulled off a screamer at backward point to remove BJ Watling. “Absolutely brilliant,” WWOS commentator Mark Taylor told cricket.com.au. “They’re the sort of moments in a game that change a game and for Steve Smith who’s already having a fantastic game, once again he’s set the standard for his team and got his team right back in the contest.”

Catch of the summer? Smith takes a blinder

The consolation effort

Black Caps opener Martin Guptill scored a stunning 114 in what was a lone hand for the Black Caps. Tasked with chasing down 325, Guptill didn’t hold back in taking on the fearsome pace trip of Starc, Hazlewood and Cummins. The tall right-hander struck 10 fours and six sixes in his 102-ball knock that kept the visitors in the hunt. When he reached 48, Guptill became the fastest New Zealander to reach 5,000 ODI runs, reaching the feat in his 132nd innings. He reached triple-figures with a breezy six over long-on to record ODI century No.11. A juggling catch by substitute fielder Glenn Maxwell ended his stay at the crease after he clobbered an Adam Zampa long-hop to mid-wicket.

Highlights of Guptill's entertaining knock

The cameo

Travis Head’s 52 was vital in a 127-run partnership with Smith that navigated Australia from 4-92 to 5-219. It was Head’s highest ODI score (beating his previous best of 51), and although he had a life on seven when Matt Henry dropped a sitter at mid-off, he looked right at home in the green and gold in only his 13th match. While Head’s knock lifted Australia into a powerful position, Matthew Wade’s 38 from 22 balls launched the innings to a winning total. Playing with a license to swing, Wade clocked three sixes in the 45th over off medium-pacer Jimmy Neesham, the final maximum an audacious scoop over fine-leg.

Head chips in with crucial half-century

The big wicket

Chasing 325 to win under lights at the SCG, New Zealand needed their skipper and best batsman Kane Williamson to score a colossal century. Unfortunately for the Black Caps, their inspirational skipper was out for nine, edging a full, wide sucker ball from Josh Hazlewood to Smith at first slip who was nearly knocked off his feet by the hot chance.

Munro's bat-breaking effort at the SCG

The pick of the quicks

Much was made about the three fast bowlers who could reach speeds in excess of 150kph, but it was the mild-mannered Hazlewood who claimed 3-49 and was the most effective in the first ODI. Hazlewood got he first breakthrough of the New Zealand innings, bowling opener Tom Latham, before capturing the big wicket of Williamson and allrounder Colin de Grandhomme. While he doesn’t possess the slower balls of a James Faulkner, the right-armer bowled with surgical accuracy and encouragingly found some reverse swing.

Quick Single: Spectacular Smith sends records tumbling


The stat

When debutant Lockie Ferguson bowled his first no ball in international cricket, it was the first time in 35 ODIs that a Black Caps bowler had overstepped. That’s more than 8,500 deliveries! 

Debutant's eventful first over at the SCG

The stat II

In 40 previous innings against Australia in all formats, Martin Guptill had never posted three figures. His average in all forms against the Aussies is 24.75, even after tonight's century.

The worst way to go

It’s a complete accident. No batsman means to hit the ball that straight. No bowler means to deflect the ball onto the stumps. And no non-striker thinks that backing up too far will lead to a run out. All those things happened when Neesham fumbled Smith’s straight drive back onto the stumps to run out non-striker Mitch Marsh, who was backing up too far. Marsh punched his bat in frustration, Smith threw his head back in disgust, and Neesham raised his hand in celebration as if it was all part of an elaborate plan. It wasn’t.

Marsh dismissed in the worst possible way

The second worst way to go

This one isn’t a complete accident, but again it’s hard to call it fully intentional. If being run out backing up too far is the worst way to be dismissed in cricket, then being caught down the leg side is the second worst. No bowler really means to bowl a half-volley down leg, and no batsman means to feather a leg glance so fine the wicketkeeper can catch it. George Bailey was the unlucky batsman to fall that exact way on Sunday, although he got a fair bit of bat on Neesham’s leg-side delivery and was well caught by gloveman BJ Watling.

Take a look close at the Bailey shuffle

The reviews

New Zealand missed a trick when they decided not to review an lbw appeal against Smith in the eighth over. Boult shaped one back into Smith, who played a rare false stroke and was wrapped on the pads in front of off stump but was given not out. The Black Caps opted not to review but ball tracking confirmed Smith would have been out for 13. At the other end of the scale, Colin de Grandhomme reviewed his lbw decision that proved to be stone dead, hitting middle stump halfway up.

Smith gets a let off as NZ opt not to review

The wash-up

Both teams head to Canberra tomorrow for Tuesday’s second match at Manuka Oval. New Zealand will likely make changes to their XI, with Tim Southee a possible option to bolster an inexperienced attack. For Australia, it might be hard to change a winning side that needs only one more victory to reclaim the Chappell-Hadlee Trophy.

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