Australia thrashed New Zealand by on Sunday (25th February) to whitewash the Kiwis in their own turf in a rain curtailed match. Handy contributions from Aussie batters especially Matthew Short quick-fire 27 off 11, Travis Head's 33 off 30 and top bowling from the T20 specialists Nathan Ellis and Spencer Johnson helped Aussies cleansweep the Kiwis.

Earlier, New Zealand won the toss and elected to bowl first. Australia were right on the money after being instered to bat first. Milne removed Smith for 4 off 3 and he failed to utilise his chances for T20 world cup xi. Matthew Short came to smack the kiwis all around the park and raced to 27 off only 11 deliveries. Rain arrived and stopped the match, after a while the match was reduced to 15 overs each.

Glenn Maxwell came with his monstrous hands and made 20 off just 9 balls before rain again arrived to hamper the match. The match was then reduced to 10 overs each. Travis Head's handy 33 and little cameos from Short and Maxi helped Aussies post 118-4 after 10 overs. The target was reversed for New Zealand and the new target set was 126 runs in 10 overs.

In reply, Young and Phillips struck a few boundaries but Australia kept taking wickets at regular intervals, bowled plenty of dot balls and defended the total nonchalantly. Spencer Johnson was the pick of the bowlers as he got a wicket and his economy was really impressive as well. So was Nathan Ellis, who bowled a couple of excellent overs to restrict New Zealand under 100.

A team effort by the Australians across all the three games and they deserved to win as they were clearly the better side. The trans-tasman rivalry now locked the horns for longer version of the game starts from 29th February in Wellington.