New Zealand vs Australia, 20th Match, Pool A - Live Cricket Score, Commentary

Series: ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 Venue: Eden Park, Auckland Date & Time: Feb 28, 02:00 PM LOCAL

Thunderboult! Trent Boult removed Mitchell Starc with a delivery that would have made many a greats proud © Cricbuzz

Teams:

Australia: David Warner, Aaron Finch, Shane Watson, Michael Clarke(c), Steven Smith, Glenn Maxwell, Mitchell Marsh, Brad Haddin(w), Mitchell Johnson, Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins.

New Zealand: Brendon McCullum(c), Martin Guptill, Kane Williamson, Ross Taylor, Grant Elliott, Corey Anderson, Luke Ronchi(w), Daniel Vettori, Adam Milne, Tim Southee, Trent Boult.

McCullum: Obviously, two well respected families and the trophy means a lot to us. We haven't played it for a long time. So, it's nice for us to go on the line today. We would have bowled first as well. We have trained pretty hard over the last couple of days. No, we have got the same team. All going all, we bowl well first up and then chase the total down.

Clarke: Not a bad place to play here at the Eden Park. It's going to be a fantastic crowd, they will certainly turn the weather on, so hopefully, we can put on a good show. We will have a bat first. We got here early, got here last Sunday. Hopefully, we can put up a a good game for the people. Josh Hazlewood misses out on and Pat Cummins.

Australia captain Michael Clarke will play his first match since December last year - the Adelaide Test against India, following which he suffered a hamstring injury. There have been plenty of speculations about his return. There were a couple of practice games - one against Bangladesh and the other against the UAE, but the fact that he missed Australia's World Cup openers meant he was far from regaining complete fitness. The Bangladesh clash was washed out and his return was delayed, but it's never too late, is it?

In between there were talks about his rift with Cricket Australia to add to the endless debate of whether he should relinquish Australia's captaincy after the World Cup. However, the bottom line is that he is back, and back in a high-voltage Trans-Tasman clash. It promises to be a cracker of a contest.

The question marks over Clarke's fitness will be answered once and for all ©Reuters

bowling plans for Brendon McCullum revealed...

^RI

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Brendon McCullum: Great crowd. It was one hell of a game. Both teams showed the quality of their bowlers. Mitchell Starc was so good. Both teams put up a good show. Trent Boult was outstanding, Starc was outstanding. Overall, it was a great result. The boys like playing in front of crowds like these. We want to be an aggressive team. Thought Michael Clarke and the Aussie boys did the same today, it was like a test match field. Without being disrespectful to anyone else, both of them have been amazing for us. It is going to be alright I guess (on his arm).

Michael Clarke: It was pretty similar the whole game to be honest(talking about the tense environment). Just talking to Brendon there, it was obviously a very entertaining game. We would have liked the result to go the other way, but credit to New Zealand and obviously the way Kane played and Brendon himself was outstanding. Our batting was horrendous to put it politely and Mitchell Starc was a genius. Entertaining game, but we would have liked to have won this, no doubt about it. I think both teams will probably say that we didn't bat as well as we would have liked. I thought it was a really good wicket to be honest. I think there was enough there for the bowlers, the ball swung, didn't seam, but then if you got in, it was still nice enough to bat on.

Credit to the groundsmen, I thought they have came up with a wonderful wicket, a beautiful ground and obviously, fantastic crowd as well. It's always the same when you come here, you know you are in for a battle. Look, I think the crowd like Australia, you want your home team to win. But, I think they wanted to see good entertaining cricket. I hope everybody goes home happy. I don't think so (on being asked whether the Aussies were a little rusty because of lack of match time). I think credit to New Zealand the way they bowled, I thought they swung the ball really well and executed their skills really well. And, we were disappointed enough with our defence, so we let ourselves down with the bat.