Finch and Agar help Australia draw the series level

After being 2-0 down in the series, Australia have come back strongly to draw the series level at 2-2 ahead of the final T20I on Sunday. Once again Aaron Finch and Ashton Agar were at the heart of Australia’s comeback. Finch scored his second consecutive half-century of the series and was named man of the match for his 79 off 55 balls. Agar, on the other hand, was incredibly economical with the ball and conceded just 11 runs off his four overs and also picked up the key wickets off Martin Guptill and Devon Conway. This victory means that the series stays alive and forces a decider in front of a packed house in Wellington in the 5^th and final game.

The Australian captain Aaron Finch scored more than half of the team’s runs in this innings but kept running out of partners at the other end. Matthew Wade, Josh Phillippe, Glenn Maxwell and Marcus Stoinis were all able to get starts and enter double figures but none could make it count as they all perished for less than 20 runs. The New Zealand spin duo of Santner and Sodhi troubled the Aussies once again with Sodhi picking up 3 wickets and Santner conceding only 16 from his four overs.

Australia was reeling at 130-6 in 19 overs before Finch finally came alive to give Australia the lift they needed in the final over. He hit four 6s off Kyle Jamieson in the last over of the innings to propel Australia to a competitive total of 156-6. It was another poor outing for the New Zealand bowler who went for 49 runs in his four overs without taking a wicket.

Australia took this momentum into their bowling innings and were able to make early inroads into the New Zealand batting line-up. After taking six wickets in the previous game, Finch made Agar open the bowling for Australia. Agar kept it tight in the powerplay, conceding only 7 runs in his first three overs while also dismissing the in-form Martin Guptill. With the run-rate mounting, New Zealand kept losing wickets and were left reeling at 65-7 after 14 overs. Kyle Jamieson played a small cameo towards the end which took New Zealand past 100 but they weren’t able to recover after that 26 run final over and eventually lost the 4^th T20I by 50 runs.