Defending champions Australia suffered a humiliating 89-run defeat to New Zealand in their opening T20 World Cup game, with star man David Warner dismissed in bizarre fashion.
New Zealand racked up a mammoth total of 200-3 in their innings, with Finn Allen getting his side off to a flier with 42 off just 16 balls. Devon Conway anchored the innings with a brilliant unbeaten 92 off 58, while Jimmy Neesham blasted a quick-fire 26 to finish things off in style.
Australia had been tagged as favourites heading into the tournament, but slumped to 111 all out in response. Warner was the first wicket to fall, with Tim Southee dismissing him for just five.
The 35-year-old, who was named player of the tournament last year, was bizarrely bowled off the back of his bat as he attempted to pull Southee into the leg side. However, Warner failed to make clean contact and inside edged the ball onto his thigh pad.
The ball then ricocheted up in the air and hit his bat again, before dropping onto the stumps. "Oh my goodness gracious me," former Australia bowler Stuart Clark said on BBC Test Match Special. "That is a dismissal of unluckiness."
And Australia were unable to recover after Warner's dismissal, with Southee taking remarkable figures of 3-6 from 2.1 overs, spinner Mitchell Santner picking up 3-31 and Trent Boult taking 2-24. Glenn Maxwell was Australia's top scorer with 28, while Pat Cummins was the only other batter to pass 20.
It was a dominant performance by New Zealand, who were beaten finalists last year, while Australia are now up against it after their net run rate took a battering. Reflecting on the defeat, Maxwell admitted Australia's performance was an example of "how not to play a T20".
"The Kiwis came out hard and they played brilliantly," Maxwell said. "It's hard to stop when they're hitting everything early on, Finn Allen played a brilliant innings. They grabbed the momentum and it was really hard to strangle back, we fought hard during the middle but unfortunately they just got too many runs.
"We weren't able to get partnerships throughout the innings. It was basically how not to play a T20 and we got beaten in all aspects of the game. They were brilliant tonight."
