Read the articles of Australia vs New Zealand 1st Match Benson & Hedges World Series Cup 1990-91 - Benson & Hedges World Series Cup one-day international tournament of the 1st ODI match played between New Zealand and Australia at Sydney Cricket Ground, Sydney in 29th November 1990.
All-round Australia crushing 61-run victory over New Zealand in a rain-affected game of the opening match of a Benson and Hedges World Series Cup.
Australia scored 236-9 in 43.5 overs at when stopped the play - with top scorer by Goeff Marsh hit 46 off 78-balls including 2-fours & a six.
Mark Waugh cracked a 40 off 32-balls including 2-fours & a six with strike rate of 125, Allan Border hit 39 off 51-balls, Dean Jones scored 36 off 58-balls including 5-fours and Simon O'Donnell blasted a 35 off 24-balls contained 3-fours & 2-sixes with strike rate of 145.83.
New Zealand best bowler by Chris Pringle picked up 3-wickets for 39-runs in 9-overs including two maidens, Danny Morrison, Willie Watson both took wickets, Debutants Chris Harris and Richard Petrie both took one-wickets on their debut ODI match.
New Zealand scored 174-7 in 40 overs - due to rain revised target of 236 from 40-overs - with top scorer by Ian Smith hammered a 33 off 26-balls including 5-fours with strike rate of 126.92.
Ken Rutherford cracked a 33 off 37-balls including 2-fours, Andrew Jones scored 23 off 55-balls included two boundaries, Martin Crowe hit 21 off 48-balls with two-fours.
Mark Greatbatch scored 20 off 25+balls including 2-fours and Debutant Chris Harris - who scored a unbeaten 17 off 23-balls on his debut ODI match.
Australia best bowler by Bruce Reid captured two-wickets for 18-runs in 8-overs including four maidens with economy rate of 2.25, Carl Rackemann and Peter Taylor both took one-wickets.
Allan Border named Player of the match for his brilliant fielding to two run outs after scoring a valuable 39 off 51-balls including 4-fours.
This match reported by The Canberra Times (Third Party Reference from The Canberra Times)
Australian captain Allan Border said he was surprised to see so much grass on the Sydney wicket during today's World Series Cup match against New Zealand at the Sydney Cricket Ground.
The Aussies defeated the Kiwis by 61 runs in a rain-affected match to open the annual triangular WSC limited-overs competition.
After New Zealand skipper Martin Crowe won the toss and elected to bowl, the Australians scored 9-236 from 43.5 overs after rain had washed out 55 minutes of play.
Almost an hour was lost from the Australian innings due to rain and New Zealand's innings was further reduced to 40 overs after more rain fell during the tea interval.
However the Kiwis were tied down by some excellent bowling and could only muster 7-174 in chasing Australia's modified score of 235.
The Sydney wicket, which tradi- tionally favours spin was yesterday well grassed in influenced Martin Crowe when he won the toss.
"It was a livelier Sydney wicket than we are used to," Border said after the match.
"But generally it was a pretty good track.
"With the rain it was a bit hard to time our run but overall I am very happy."
The Australians looked sharp and confident following their first Test victory over England and were superior in all aspects of the one day game last night.
Australia's batsmen took no chances, playing the New Zealand opening bowlers with caution and penalising anything loose as the run-rate increased steadily throughout the innings.
Not one batsman reached 50 but so complete was their dominance over the bowling that by the end of their innings they had set New Zea- land the formidable task of scoring at 5.9 runs per over to win the match.
The Australians suffered a slight setback when opener David Boon fell to the third ball of the innings but Dean Jones and Geoff Marsh steadied the ship with a 54-run partnership in 13.3 overs.
Jones hit five cracking boundaries in his innings of 36.
Marsh on the other hand played a sheet-anchor role top scoring with 36 while Australia's middle order of Mark Waugh, Steve Waugh, Allan Border and Simon O'Donnell played some scintillating aggressive cricket without taking unnecessary risks.
The Australians were 2-95 after 25 overs when rain stopped play and on resumption Border and Marsh promptly took 40 runs from the next four overs before both fell in quick succession.
Mark Waugh then showed just what a class player he is in scoring a majestic 40 which included two cracking cover drives for four and a cut shot over point for six.
Waugh's two boundaries were hit with such timing and power that the fielders on the fence had taken no more than a few steps by the time the ball thudded into the boundary.
At the same time O'Donnell was matching Waugh shot for shot and his 35 off only 28 balls included three fours and two towering sixes on to the hill.
Chris Pringle was the pick of the New Zealand bowlers with 3-39 from nine overs but his figures suffered towards the end of the innings as did everyone elses.
Seamers Willie Watson and Danny Morrison both conceded more than five runs per over while picking up two wickets each while Richard Petrie and Chris Harris grabbed one apiece.
The New Zealand bowlers strayed in line and length during the middle of the Australian innings and were not helped by poor fielding in pressure situations.
Similarly their run chase started disastrously.
Veteran opener John Wright made only two before he was brilliantly run out by Border who hit from side on in the second over.
The Australians then bowled six overs without a run coming off the bat in a superb display of positive attacking cricket.
In all, the Australian fielding was faultless and run-outs produced three of the first four New Zealand wickets to fall.
Border made another direct hit. this time from midwicket on Mark Greatbatch.
Carl Rackemann chipped in by following through one of his deliveries and underarming the ball into the stumps at the umpire's end to dismiss Crowe for 21.
Mark Waugh backed up his fine knock with two excellent catches, one low down and one which almost brought more rain.
In a an uncharacteristic display, Dean Jones dropped a sitter at mid-wicket from Greatbatch before he had scored.
Amongst the Australian bowlers, first Test hero Bruce Reid was miserly and his figures of 8-4-18-2 shut the Kiwis out from the start.
New ball partner Simon O'Donnell conceded just 18 runs from his eight over spell and by the time the fielding restrictions were lifted after 14 overs, New Zealand needed more than 12 runs per over to win.
Ken Rutherford and lan Smith top scored for New Zealand with 33 runs each but their gallant stand of 61 in just over half an hour came too late.
Carl Rackemann and Peter Taylor took one wicket each late in the innings to complete a thorough dissection of the hapless Kiwis.
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