Lynn and Maxwell crush Black Caps

The match in a tweet: Lynn blazes, Stanlake dazzles to lead clinical Aussie display against trans-Tasman rivals in rain-affected T20 tri-series opener

The scorecard: New Zealand 9-117 (De Grandhomme 38*, Tye 4-23, Stanlake 3-15) lost to Australia 3-96 (Lynn 44, Maxwell 40*) 3-96 by seven wickets on the DLS method with 21 balls remaining.

The hero: Andrew Tye finished with the better figures – the sixth best by an Aussie in T20Is in fact – but it was Billy Stanlake's early contribution that was the most telling. Opening the bowling, the 23-year-old removed the Blacks Caps' two most destructive hitters with his first two balls, giving debutant Alex Carey his first catch in T20I cricket when Munro top-edged a lifter before he clean-bowled Martin Guptill with an absolute peach (more on that below). The hat-trick ball, complete with three slips and a gully, would have removed eight out of 10 international batsmen according to former Test captain Michael Clarke, but Tom Bruce safely dug out a searing attempted yorker. Stanlake did get Bruce an over later to complete the most accomplished performance of his young international career.

The drawcard: Chris Lynn was the man everyone at the SCG wanted to see and the 25,621-strong crowd braved the brief rain delay and did not go home disappointed. His achilles heel, if he has one in the shortest format, has been spin, and left-arm spin in particular – he scores at 6.01 per over against orthodox bowlers, according to CricViz. But the Queenslander showed that he's made marked improvements against the turning ball, ably handling the Black Caps spin duo of Mitchell Santner and Ish Sodhi, respectively the ICC's first and third-ranked T20I bowlers. Five of his seven boundaries came off Sodhi and Santner and while he departed with seven runs still required, his 77-run third-wicket stand with Glenn Maxwell all but sealed the game.

The ball: If you haven't watched the below on repeat at least four times yet, cricket is probably just not for you. Having picked up a wicket with his first ball of the match, Stanlake's next offering – to Guptill – was even better. Stanlake, all of 204cm, got this one to jag away off a good length and smash into the top of off stump to leave Guptill dumbfounded. Sometimes you just get a good one early . . .

The support cast: All of Australia's bowlers were stellar as was the free-wheeling Glenn Maxwell but Tye was the best of the supplementary performers, ensuring the Kiwis didn't get any traction in their faltering first innings. After picking up the key scalp of NZ captain Kane Williamson – thanks to a terrific running catch by David Warner – Tye cleaned up the tail and was a constant threat with his crafty use of slower balls. The right-armer now has 12 wickets at 8.5 in his last three games for Australia, having claimed 3-33 and 5-46 in the final two Gillette ODIs against England.

The stat: Kane Williamson's pained knock of eight off 21 balls was the slowest innings of his T20I career, with Australia's bowlers giving the visiting skipper virtually nothing to hit.

The consolation effort: Colin de Grandhomme's surname translates to 'of the Big Man', but Colin de Grandhitter might be more apt for powerful allrounder. The Kiwi's T20 strike-rate of 168.40 is the highest of all time (minimum 250 balls) and if not for his clean striking, the visitors might have been bundled out for an even slimmer total. De Grandhomme hit the first two sixes of New Zealand's innings – in the 14th over no less – but his third was the most impressive, nearly sending Tye onto the roof of the Bill O'Reilly stand with a 90-metre flick off his legs.

The save: It wasn't a wicket, but what an effort this was from Ashton Agar. The lithely built allrounder took flight to stop a certain de Grandhomme six on the long-on boundary, caught it cleanly in mid-air before calmly throwing the ball back over his left shoulder and into the field of play. It was the most spectacular moment from a near-flawless Australian fielding effort, with a number of smart catches from the home side giving Kiwis little respite.

The wash-up: While three of Australia's squad (Short, Carey and Travis Head) will head to Adelaide for Sunday's KFC BBL final, the bulk of the squad now head to Hobart for their next match against England on Wednesday. New Zealand now head back across the ditch and have a 10-day break ahead of their next match, against England in Wellington on February 13.

Australia XI: David Warner (c), D'Arcy Short, Chris Lynn, Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis, Alex Carey (wk), Ashton Agar, Andrew Tye, Kane Richardson, Adam Zampa, Billy Stanlake.

New Zealand XI: Martin Guptill, Colin Munro, Kane Williamson (c), Tom Bruce, Ross Taylor, Colin de Grandhomme, Tom Blundell (wk), Mitchell Santner, Tim Southee, Ish Sodhi, Trent Boult.

Gillette T20 trans-Tasman Tri-Series

Australia squad: David Warner (c), Aaron Finch (vc), Ashton Agar, Alex Carey, Ben Dwarshuis, Travis Head, Chris Lynn, Glenn Maxwell, Kane Richardson, D'Arcy Short, Billy Stanlake, Marcus Stoinis, Andrew Tye, Adam Zampa.

England squad: Eoin Morgan (c), Sam Billings, Jos Buttler, Sam Curran, Tom Curran, Liam Dawson, Alex Hales, Chris Jordan, Dawid Malan, Liam Plunkett, Adil Rashid, Jason Roy, Ben Stokes, James Vince, David Willey, Mark Wood.

New Zealand squad: Kane Williamson (c), Tom Blundell, Trent Boult, Tom Bruce, Colin de Grandhomme, Martin Guptill, Anaru Kitchen, Colin Munro, Seth Rance, Mitchell Santner, Ish Sodhi, Tim Southee, Ross Taylor, Ben Wheeler. 

PM's XI v England Manuka Oval, February 2. Tickets

First T20I Australia won by seven wickets. Scorecard

Second T20I Australia v England, Blundstone Arena, February 7. Tickets

Third T20I Australia v England, MCG, February 10. Tickets

Fourth T20I NZ v England, Wellington, February 14

Fifth T20I NZ v Australia, Eden Park, February 16

Sixth T20I NZ v England, Seddon Park, February 18

Final TBC, Eden Park, February 21