The trans-Tasman rivals Australia and New Zealand will lock horns in the summit clash of the ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2021.
"T20 is a very fickle game." This is one of the frequent sentences of Kane Williamson before and after every T20 match he is captaining in, irrespective of whether his team has won the game or not. The ongoing ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2021 is one of the perfect examples of that line as not a single person predicted or expected the trans-Tasman rivals Australia and New Zealand to be in the final.
Let alone final, many analysts, experts cricketers and fans didn't have these two teams even qualifying for the semi-finals. It was England, South Africa from Group 1 and India, Pakistan from Group 2. However, New Zealand and Australia broke several notions and showed that any team can beat anyone on a given day and the one who keeps their nerves in crunch moments will advance. This is how knockout T20 cricket works, history, form doesn't matter, one player can turn the game on its head and both semi-finals showed it.
The two teams, who played the first-ever T20I back in 2005 will be up against each other hoping for their maiden World T20 trophy. The tournament will get a new winner and everyone is hoping for them to give a match worthy of a final.
Ahead of the big game, let's take a look at some of the memorable games these two sides have produced over the years:
1. The 'underarm' controversy in 1981 match that got NZ Prime Minister involved
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The match isn't known much for what happened in the game itself but how it ended. It was the third final of the one-day series between Australia and New Zealand in 1981 and it came down to the last ball with the visitors needing 7 runs off the last ball to win, chasing 236 runs.
In a sudden turn of events, Greg Chappell asked his younger brother Trevor to deliver the final ball underarm. More angry than surprised New Zealand batter Brian McKechnie threw his bat away in disgust and the incident invited severe criticism.
New Zealand's then Prime Minister, Robert Muldoon got involved saying that the delivery was "an act of true cowardice and I consider it appropriate that the Australian team were wearing yellow".
Even though it was legal at that time but 'Spirit of Game' of Greg Chappell and co was questioned as there was no other option but to play the ball, which came rolling along the ground.
Australia obviously won the game by six runs but the match was never remembered for the cricket that was played in 99.5 overs before that.
2. King Kane getting NZ home in a thriller in 2015 World Cup group stage match
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Australia won the final of the 2015 Cricket World Cup against New Zealand comfortably by seven wickets, however, the two co-hosts produced one of the games of the tournament when they met earlier in the group stage match in Auckland.
Brad Haddin's 43 and David Warner's 34 provided some respectability to otherwise a very sorry-looking scorecard as Trent Boult kept pitching it on the off-stump line and Australian batters kept chopping it onto the stumps.
Somehow they got to 151 and New Zealand skipper Brendon McCullum's 21-ball 50 blew them away and it looked like the game will be over in 15-20 overs. However, there was a twist waiting for the Auckland crowd as a thriller awaited them.
Pat Cummins removed McCullum quickly after a repeat telecast of the first innings followed in the second. This time it was Kiwi batters and a left-arm pacer again, Mitchell Starc.
Starc picked up a fifer as well as the equation came down to six runs needed off 27 overs, but with just one wicket remaining and the cool, calm, composed Kane Williamson hit Pat Cummins for a six over long-on to get his side home in a nail-biting finish.
3. Ignorance was a bliss till it wasn't in 1974 as New Zealand gave it back to Australia
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Before this whole neighbour rivalry came about, before the 1970s, New Zealand weren't a really worthy opponent for Australia for almost 30 years. And, it took just one game for the Aussies to take their neighbours seriously when New Zealand recorded their first-ever Test win against them.
It was in 1974 in Christchurch when Glenn Turner hit centuries in both innings to spoil Ian Redpath's efforts of twin half-centuries as New Zealand chased down 230 runs in the fourth innings to win by 5 wickets and beat Aussies for the first time in Test matches.
4. Australia edging past New Zealand braving a Brendon McCullum special in 2009
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One-off games don't have much significance and are forgotten by the time unless one performance makes it memorable or the match goes to the last ball and it was the latter in this case when New Zealand travelled for one T20I in 2009 to play against Australia in Sydney.
Contributions from David Warner, Brad Haddin, David Hussey and Adam Voges helped Australia to a respectable score of 150 runs and New Zealand got off to the worst start possible losing two early wickets.
Brendon McCullum, on the other hand, kept Kiwis afloat with a well-made half-century forging important partnerships of 61 runs with Neil Broom first and then of 58 runs with Grant Elliot as the equation came down to them needing 20 runs off the last two overs.
McCullum got out on the first ball of 19th over and they could score just six runs that over, with 14 to get in the final.
Brendon's brother Nathan hit a six and a four in the last over but New Zealand fell just one run short as the hosts won a thriller.
5. Martin Guptill special helping New Zealand win thriller at Dunedin in 2021
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Martin Guptill's slam-bang innings of 97 runs, ably supported by skipper Kane Williamson with a 35-ball 53 and Jimmy Neesham's quickfire cameo of 45 runs off just 16 balls helped New Zealand post a mammoth total of 219 runs batting first in the second T20I of the five-match series in Dunedin.
It seemed enough Australia had lost three key wickets of skipper Aaron Finch, Matthew Wade and Glenn Maxwell by the 10th over. Josh Philippe kept them afloat, however, the turning point came in the latter half as Marcus Stoinis came to the party.
From 113/6 after 13 overs, Stoinis and Daniel Sams took Australia to 205 in six overs in absolute carnage in the period of those six overs. They stitched a 92-run partnership and brought their side in the touching distance of a win.
The visitors needed 15 runs off the final over but it was the golden arm of Neesham to hurt them again. Neesham struck the first ball getting rid of Sams and a couple of dot balls after it almost sealed the fate of the match.
Stoinis did hit a six on the fourth delivery but got out on the next and despite Jhye Richardson's boundary on the final, it wasn't enough as the hosts won the nerve-wrecking game by just four runs.
