Warner delighted as Australia 'live the dream'

David Warner paid tribute to the attitude of his team after Australia hit 245/5 to achieve the highest-ever successful run-chase in T20 internationals and beat New Zealand with seven balls to spare.

Presented with a perfect batting wicket and short boundaries at Eden Park in Auckland, Australia made light work of chasing a potentially intimidating total.

“What a fantastic effort by the boys,” said Warner, who has been standing in for Steven Smith as captain throughout the Trans-Tasman T20I Tri-Series. “When you’ve got a total like that and an outstanding innings from Guppy [Martin Guptill, who hit 105 off 54 balls for New Zealand], you’ve just got to take the scoreboard out of it and back yourself and start well – and we did.”

By taking four wickets in the last four overs – including that of Guptill in the 17th – Australia were able to keep New Zealand to 243/6 – a substantial score but fewer than the 260 it looked like becoming at one stage.

“When we look back at the first innings, they were 0/67 off the Powerplay and it was good to bring it back slightly… we knew we couldn’t err on the wrong side on a ground like this. Still it was a fantastic knock by New Zealand but as I said you’ve just got to keep playing with freedom, keep backing yourself and don’t get caught up in the small boundaries, just keep playing natural strokes.”

Warner was happy with the team’s positive outlook throughout the series.

“What I said from day one when we started this, was to have a lot of energy, have fun and keep the smile on our face – we’re doing what we’re love, we’re living the dream, playing cricket for our country and when you get a fantastic crowd like this it’s absolutely sensational.”

New Zealand captain Kane Williamson tried to remain philosophical on what was a bruising night for the bowlers.

“It was a very good surface, small ground and a game like that was bound to happen here at some point. We’ve seen scores on the lower side but today both teams batted outstandingly well, put both bowling attacks under a lot of pressure, and came up with what we had today.

“I suppose at the halfway point you feel like you’ve got a fairly good score on the board but at the same time you still know that any opposition here won’t die wondering and if they come off they’ll get close – and they got more than close today.”

Williamson was reluctant to draw too many conclusions about his bowling attack from the beating they took in Auckland.

“It’s a very tough one – Australia played beautifully well, they struck the ball very nicely – as did we in the first half. It’s hard to be too critical, all you can do is look at your defensive options as well as you can and look to execute next game, but at the same time, even at times when you did execute, half-hits would go 20 rows back, and that makes things quite tough.

New Zealand will now play England on Sunday 18 February on what will – depending on net run rate – probably turn out to be a shootout for a place in the final next Wednesday.

“It’s hard to learn a huge amount from,” said Williamson, “because we’re going to be going to a different ground and a different surface and we need to be smart about how we operate on that surface because it’ll be different to this one, I’m sure.”

The Black Caps captain admitted his side was missing the left-arm spin of Mitchell Santner, who missed the game through injury.

“Any time Mitch plays he’s outstanding for us, he’s in the top three T20 bowlers in the world so obviously you want to have him every day, but that’s the nature of sport, you have injuries. Someone like Ben Wheeler [who ended with figures of 0/64 off 3.1 after being removed from the attack for two high no-balls] came in and look... he has been going extremely well, but I think all the bowlers will feel that today it’s just tough to swallow. It’s important that we bounce back for the next game.”