‘So near, yet so far’ seems to be the best-suited idiom for the visitors Australia, who lost two games in the series, by a what was a small margin. After losing the first game by margin of six runs and after second game being washed out, all eyes were on Australia as a win in this game would have resulted in series end in a tie and it would have been Australian team who would have retained the Chappell-Hadlee cup as they defeated the Kiwis in the series last year, when they crushed the visitors by a margin of 3-0, but this was not the case this time.
In the final game of the series at Seddon Park in Hamilton, New Zealand won the toss and decided to bat first. After losing early wickets of Tom Latham, middle-order of NZ came to the rescue and drove the team ahead. Ross Taylor was the star of his team as he scored a century, propelling his team ahead.
He came at the crease in the 15th over of the game and went on to bat for another 32 overs to not just hold the batting line up but also drive kiwi innings to a respectable score.
Mitchell Santner’s contribution of 38* off 34 deliveries was also crucial as there was a stage when New Zealand batting lineup faced a slump again but an essential contribution from Santner helped the team to put a defendable total of 281 runs on the board.
Both Mitchell Starc and Jame Faulkner scalped three wickets each but gave runs in excess of economy rate of six.
The Australian innings can be divided into four parts, comprising of three double jitters and then a triple jitter which occurred in the last 10 overs.
Kangaroos team had a decent start when the opening pair of Shaun Marsh and Aaron Finch came to chase the target but a double jitter on a score of 44, dented their good start. The third wicket partnership of 75 runs between Aaron Finch and Travis Head generated hopes again for the Australian team but a double jitter in form of skipper Finch and Maxwell (0) dented theirs hopes. The same thing happens for the third time in the game when Head (53) and Faulkner (0) were dismissed in the same over.
Just like the first game, everyone had eyes on Marcus Stoinis to repeat heroics but the hopes soon were dimmed when he was dismissed for 42 runs, with Kangaroos still 84 runs away from the target.
An eighth-wicket partnership of 51 runs between Pat Cummins and Mitchell Starc, though, gave the team some hope but this time a triple jitter in a matter of 2.3 overs just sealed the fate of this team, to hand New Zealand a win by a margin of 24 runs along with the Chappell-Hadlee Trophy.