Read the article of Australia vs New Zealand 12th Match Benson & Hedges World Series Cup 1986 - Benson & Hedges World Series Cup one-day international tournament of the 12th ODI match played between New Zealand and Australia at Adelaide Oval in 27th January 1986.
Bruce Edgar and John Wright's each 61 before A economical Pace bowling attack from Richard Hadlee and Ewen Chatfield's combined 5-wickets sets up to New Zealand's record 181-run victory over Australia and keep alive their campaign in a one-sided game of the 12th match of a Benson and Hedges World Series Cup.
New Zealand scored 276-7 in 50 overs with top scorer by Bruce Edgar cracked a 61 off 84-balls including 3-fours.
John Wright hit 61 off 85-balls including 4-fours & 2-sixes, Jeremy Coney cracked a 40 off 34-balls included four-fours, Martin Crowe 26, Richard Hadlee 24, Jeff Crowe 24 not out and Bruce Blair 21.
Australia best bowler by Bruce Reid picked up 3-wickets for 41-runs in 10-overs including a maiden, Simon Davis and Craig McDermott both took 2-wickets.
Australia bundled out their joint lowest score of 70 in 26.3 overs with top scorer by Wayne Phillips scored 22 off 38-balls including 2-fours, David Boon 10 and Dave Gilbert 8.
New Zealand best bowler by Richard Hadlee picked up 3-wickets for 14-runs in 5-overs including a maiden.
Ewen Chatfield takes 2-wickets for 9-runs in 7-overs included two maidens with economy rate of 1.28, John Bracewell took 2-wickets for 3-runs in 3.3-overs included a maiden with economy rate of 0.85 and Bruce Edgar took one-wicket.
This match reported by Mike Coward (Third Party Reference from SMH)
It is a fact of contemporary cricket life that allowances must be made when assessing performances in the frenetic frolics that are one-day matches.
The very nature of this peculiar but universally popular form of the game demands you don't take all the happenings too seriously.
Certainly it was not possible to take seriously the effort of the Australian XI at Adelaide Oval.
Somehow they managed to be dismissed for 70- the second-lowest score in the history of the World Series Cup competition - by a New Zealand team who have been far from convincing on this second visit here this summer.
Australia lasted only 26.3 overs and lost the match by a colossal 206 runs, presumably the rough equivalent of an innings defeat in this sort of cricket.
Of course, in the overall scheme of things, it doesn't matter all that much. After all, on Sunday the Australians qualified for next month's finals when they beat India, until this season the acknowledged global champions of compressed cricket, by 36 runs. To boot, until this match's sorry episode, the Australians had won five of six matches - a remarkably consistent effort given the players' distaste for the lottery that is the one-day game.
But just how many allowances should be made at this time, when those in the inner sanctum are bleating about regeneration and progress and the like? From the outset. those in the Australian corner squirmed in their chairs.
The bowling was pedestrian, the fielding sloppy and the catching lamentable against an opposition who had to win two points to stay in the qualifying race with India.
Then followed a batting display which at best can be described as forgettable. Only Wayne Phillips, batting at No 7 in skipper Allan Border's revamped order, managed to better 10.
It was all horrid; an insult to the 25,742 spectators who had shown admirable loyalty to a team who at times over the past 12 months or so have hardly deserved such wholehearted, unreserved and unconditional public support.
While the Australians had a bit of luck the previous day, they were also slick, efficient, committed and professional. Of course, that match mattered.
The Australians could have given some credence to all these claims about a revival and resurgence and the like by winning when they had no need to.
They might even have convinced us the rally of recent weeks was legitimate and meaningful. Now, again, we are not too sure.
Perhaps events at the Sydney Cricket Ground Wednesday night, when they again play New Zealand, will tell us more.
It seems as though celebrating the graduation to the finals received priority at the weekend.
Surely not more conditional professionalism?
Border, who has no affection for this style of the game, was more philosophical than annoyed.
At the same time, Border admitted he was disappointed for the people who again had risked severe sunburn to support a team they believed was at last making some headway.
"I'm a little bit concerned about the way we lost rather than the loss," he said.
"If we'd gone down with a bit of fight, OK, but being all out for 70 is not good enough.
"Hopefully they [the Australian players] are embarrassed about it. But I'm not totally worried about it. We're in the finals, and let's face it, that is what we are here to do.
"Any team can win a one-day game. You can get a bunch of park cricketers out of A grade and, on a given day, they will beat an Australian team.
"That's the nature of it. You win some, you lose some. Hopefully, you win more than you lose. "Hopefully, this is our one bad day in the one-day tournament and we've got it out of the road."
While Border again asserted the Australians had made some gains in recent weeks, he agreed it would be impossible to gauge the extent of development and progress until Test-match competition was resumed on the tour of New Zealand which starts next month.
"The true test of a nation's cricket side is in Test matches," he said.
"One-day cricket is a game designed for the public, not the players."
That being so, the public had every right to feel affronted.
For all but those waving the black flag embossed with the silver fern, it was an empty day.
If in time they recall anything at all, it will be the fact that in his 10 overs Craig McDermott conceded exactly the same number of runs Australia scored and that Geoff Marsh, Stephen Waugh, Glenn Trimble played ahead of Greg Ritchie, who has a groin strain - and David Boon all missed catches.
Boon missed two, although the first, offered to him at slip by Martin Crowe against Bruce Reid in the ninth over, would rarely be taken, even at this level of the game.
Crowe's dismissal for 24 very nearly sparked yet another umpiring dispute. It says much for the temperament and sportsmanship of Crowe, and his skipper Jeremy Coney, that there was not a controversy to rival that of Sunday when umpires Ray Isherwood and Peter McConnell upset the Indian camp.
Umpire Tony Crafter adjudged Crowe caught at wide slip by Border off a delivery from Bruce Reid which appeared to be climbing over his shoulder.
In this cricket, a ball which passes over the shoulder of a player in his conventional batting position is deemed a "no ball".
The verdict certainly irritated Crowe, who stared at Crafter as he reluctantly departed.
When it was his turn to bowl, Crowe pitched his seventh delivery short to Craig McDermott and Crafter promptly called "no ball".
At the end of the over, Crowe affectionately patted Crafter on the head and exchanged a few words. "I was just letting you regain your confidence," Crowe told the smiling Crafter.
Splendid batting by Bruce Edgar (61 from 84 balls), John Wright, for a change at No 4, (61 from 85 balls) and Jeremy Coney (40 from 34 deliveries) provided NZ with the impetus to gather an imposing 276 at an average of 5.52 runs per over.
To perfectly complement their fine batting, Richard Hadlee then bowled beautifully to take 3-14 runs from five overs and so win yet another Man-of-the-Match award.
The Australians believe the match is best forgotten. They will get no argument from anyone who witnessed it.
:
