David Warner’s run of outs has continued in Australia’s warm-up match against New Zealand at the T20 World Cup in Abu Dhabi.
Fresh off a miserable IPL that saw him dropped by Sunrisers Hyderabad, Warner fell for a first-ball duck, as Australia scraped home by three wickets with one ball to spare.
Kane Richardson’s three wickets helped restrict New Zealand to 7-158, a target that looked like it might be a winning score when Australia lost three wickets in the space of five balls in the middle overs.
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It fell to Ashton Agar (23 off 18 balls), Mitchell Starc (13 not out off 9) and Josh Inglis (8 off 2) to get the Australians over line.
Inglis came to the crease in the final over with Australia needing eight runs to win off three balls, and promptly scooped Kyle Jamieson for four, before edging another boundary next ball to finish the match.
Playing his first match in over three weeks, Warner’s stay was as brief as it could be, edging the first ball of the innings from Tim Southee to Martin Guptill at second slip, who took a fine catch to his left.
What might be debated is the merits of charging the first ball he faced, having not had a competitive hit since September 25.
The match did nothing to quell concerns over Australia’s middle-order batting, with neither Steve Smith (35 off 30) nor Marcus Stoinis (28 off 23) able to put the game behind the reach of New Zealand, as the pair combined for a partnership of 48 in 40 balls.
It meant that when Smith, Matthew Wade and Stoinis fell in quick succession, a comfortable 3-114 became 6-115 with less than five overs remaining.
With Glenn Maxwell, Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins rested, this was far from a full-strength Australian side, but the sight of Mitchell Marsh (24 off 15) at number three gave some indication of coach Justin Langer’s plans for the tournament.
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