Australia beat New Zealand by 5 runs in thriller

Sports desk: Australia clinch a five-run victory over New Zealand in a thriller of high scoring 27th game of the World Cup in Dharamsala on Saturday.

The five-time world champions restricted the Blackcaps to 383 while defending 388 runs at the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association Stadium.

In reply to the total, New Zealand got a flying start making a 61-run stand between Devon Conway (28) and Will Young (32) in seven overs. Both of them departed in a short time as the Blackcaps went on 72/2 after 9.4 overs.

Rachin Ravindra (116) then came in and completed his second hundred in this tournament while building several partnerships including a 96-run stand with Daryl Mitchell (54).

The kiwis were on the right track to win the match but no further batters apart from James Neesham (58) could contributed enough toward the end to manage the victory.

Adam Zampa got the highest three wickets for Australia while each of Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins picked up two.

Earlier, Travis Head (109) and David Warner (81) steered Australia to manage 388 before being all out on batting first. They made a 175-run stormy stand between them to set the platform getting the total.

However, Australia kept losing wickets at regular intervals after both of them departed as no Aussie batters could carry long enough.

Mitchell Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Josh Inglis and Pat Cummins made some contribution with their 36, 41, 38 and 37 runs respectively.

Playing XIs

Australia: David Warner, Travis Head, Mitchell Marsh, Steven Smith, Marnus Labuschagne, Josh Inglis (wk), Glenn Maxwell, Pat Cummins (c), Mitchell Starc, Adam Zampa, Josh Hazlewood.

New Zealand: Devon Conway, Will Young, Rachin Ravindra, Daryl Mitchell, Tom Latham (c & wk), Glenn Phillips, James Neesham, Mitchell Santner, Matt Henry, Lockie Ferguson, Trent Boult.