Haddin engineers victory

CRICINFO.COM

HAMILTON – Brad Haddin’s second one-day international century gave Australia a 2-1 lead and the most one-sided victory of their New Zealand tour, as they chased down their target of 246 with six wickets intact and 16 balls to spare yesterday.

Haddin’s 110 was his highest one-day score and he ended Daniel Vettori’s hopes of winning what he said before the match was “the most important game of the series”.

Ricky Ponting was annoyed in the opening two games at his batsmen’s inability to capitalise on their starts, and they resolved that problem at Seddon Park. Ponting made 69 and combined with Haddin for a match-winning 151-run partnership that justified Ponting’s rare decision to send New Zealand in. It is a gamble he has taken 24 times in his one-day captaincy career for a remarkable 20 victories.

His bowlers did the job early by dismissing New Zealand for a thoroughly gettable 245 and in the chase, Haddin set about determining the result early.

Haddin loves batting against New Zealand; his only two one-day hundreds and his first Test century have come against them, and in all three forms of the game he averages 52,06 against New Zealand compared to an overall career mark of 34,55.

He did cruel things to Michael Mason, who at 35 was playing his first international since mid-2008 and must have finished the day wondering if fighting back into the team was all worthwhile. Mason’s opening delivery, a no-ball, was dabbed by Haddin for four past the wicketkeeper and the subsequent free-hit was slapped contemptuously back over his head for six.

Haddin drove two more boundaries in the over, which cost Mason 20, and the bowler was lucky that his ten overs cost only 68.

There was little assistance for Australia’s bowlers on a good batting surface but New Zealand struggled to make the best of the conditions and slipped to 55/3.

They had much the same problem Australia had endured in the first two games when they batted first: batsmen falling after making promising starts. Ross Taylor was the only man who went on and registered a half-century, although even his 62 was short of what it could have been.

n Vice-captain Michael Clarke quit Australia’s tour for personal reasons and has returned to his Sydney home.