Australia vs New Zealand: How Australia’s faith in David Warner and Travis Head opening combination paid off | Cricket-world-cup News

On some days, the number of fours and sixes bludgeoned with modern day bats can be mind numbing. Numbers can help reassess the impact a boundary-fest has had on an innings.Australia’s openers David Warner and Travis Head were so murderous when facing the new ball that New Zealand had to wait till the 14th over for a boundary not to be hit either one of them. the end of the 10th over, the opening partnership of this marauding pair of southpaws was 118. At that point, the end of the first Powerplay, when just two fielders are allowed outside the circle, Warner and Head were toying with the bowlers. Fifty six ofWarner’s 65 came via boundaries, Head made 48 of 50 through hits to or over the fence. Head finished with an impactful century and Warner made 81. Till both of them were in the middle, the World record score of 498, in England’s name, looked like it was under threat.
Follow all the action from the Cricket World Cup 2023 on our special World Cup section. You can also find the latest stats, like the top scorer and the highest wicket-taker of the current edition, upcoming World Cup fixtures and the points table on the site.
Australia had put faith in the Warner-Head combination. Mitch Marsh was asked to bat at number 3 and Steve Smith a spot down to accommodate Head, who returned from injury to make his World Cup debut. A 175-run opening stand in just 19.1 overs justified the tinkering around with the batting line-up.
This was a pair skipper Pat Cummins had deemed as essential and exciting. Only a day ago, he’d spoken of the ‘best way to set up the team’. Bring in Head to open alongside Warner. His explanation for the same, “Travis has been amazing over the last four months. David Warner, obviously the superstar. It’s a lineup that’s got us very excited.”
An in-form Warner – two hundreds and a fifty – and a confident and powerful striker Head to get things started off will bode well for the Australians who started off the campaign with two losses.
A brutal collection of 15 fours and 11 sixes forced the New Zealanders to chop and change their A-plan with the ball early in the day. Australia, the five-time world champions, looked like they had well and truly arrived at the 2023 World Cup. One may argue it was the game against the Dutch where they flicked the switch after consecutive defeats to India and South Africa and only a five-wicket win against an underfiring Sri Lankan side. But this was different. An all-out assault against one of the more balanced bowling attacks of the tournament – in the Trans-Tasman der. And, it was a southpaw opening combination for Australia causing the damage and giving a sense of deja vu.
Adam Gilchr and Matthew Hayden had done so over two World Cups – both of which Australia won – in the eight years and 114 games they opened together. It was their attack-first approach against the new ball bowlers that had been the foundation of Australia scoring big totals consently and bossing the ODI format in the aughts. 10 overs of field restrictions would seem like a lifetime when the two were batting. As it did for New Zealand, courtesy of Australia’s latest southpaw pair at the World Cup. And there was a lot of Gilchr and Hayden in the way they operated. Like the former, Australia’s contemporary openers went about scoping boundaries from both ends.
On the first sighting of width from Matt Henry, Warner would reach outside the off stump to cut one hard beyond the reach of backward point. How often had Matthew Hayden got the scoreboard going with that similar crunch shot? Just a stretch of the front foot to carve out an opening to his left.
Later in the over as Henry switched to a shorter length, Warner pocketed four more runs flashing the pull shot – another stroke that was dear to Hayden. Elaborating on what makes for a perfect pull, the former Aussie opener had once elaborated, “It’s the backfoot. The front leg up in the air gives you the counter balance to be able to rotate your bat. Pull shot is really all about getting into a stable position. A controlled position.”
David Warner had weight pressed against his backfoot, with the bottom hand wa high to flick the ball over the fielder at square leg. With two boundaries in the first over he’d set the tone as he often had in this competition for Australia. Over to his partner at the other end.
The parallels between Head and Gilchr had been drawn only this summer none other than Ricky Ponting himself. “He probably is (similar to Gilchr) His confidence is growing the game, his strike-rate keeps going up, he hits boundaries early on in his innings which puts pressure back on the bowlers,” the former Aussie skipper said on commentary during the WTC Final against India. Most Read
1
Deepika Padukone says she and Ranveer Singh were ‘technically allowed’ to date other people ‘until he proposed’: ‘There was no real commitment’

2
Leo box office collection Day 8: Vijay-starrer aims to beat Jailer’s Rs 600 crore record, still has a long road ahead

See More

He’d scored a hundred then. On Saturday, playing his first World Cup game, Head got another. It was scarcely believable though. Nursing a thumb fracture, he’d been out of action for nearly six weeks. A nasty blow off a quick bouncer from South Africa’s Gerald Coetzee had seemed like the end of his World Cup dreams. Here he was, scoring a 59-ball-ton. The team management had exercised extra caution in his recovery. Even though Head had sweated hard in the Delhi nets earlier this week, his return only came in Dharamsala. But when it did, he lived up to the fearless persona of the batsman Ponting had compared him to.
Matt Henry wouldn’t shy away from serving him a short one as early as the third over. Only to be clubbed over deep mid wicket. He’d nail him for a couple more in that arc to deep square leg – forcing him out of the attack after just three overs.
The introduction of spin from the Kiwis changed little as the Aussie openers went from scoring 50 off five overs to 100 off nine to 175 in less than 20. “We tried to put as much pressure as we can, we were able to get away today, take our chances and then also go on and make a really big partnership,” Head would say afterwards. Part-timer Glenn Phillips removed both in quick succession. But the time he’d done so, a solid foundation had been laid for the rest of the batsmen. Despite the middle order failing to capitalize on the head start, cameos from the likes of Glenn Maxwell, Josh Inglis and Pat Cummins were enough to push the total to 388. The heavy lifting had already been done the two openers, who brought with them some Australian-style hitting heritage to the top of the order.