Australia moved to the top of Group A after they defeated New Zealand by seven wickets at the Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium in Nagpur. Australia overhauled New Zealand’s target of 207 in the 34th over.
Ricky Ponting won the toss and put New Zealand into bat first. Shaun Tait removed Brendon McCullum (16) early in the innings. Martin Guptill (10) too could not last long and New Zealand were 40/2 in the ninth over. The Kiwis looked like recovering through Jesse Ryder (25) before Mitchell Johnson and Shaun Tait combined to remove four New Zealand wickets within a span of seven runs. Ross Taylor (7), James Franklin (0) and Scott Styris (0) could not contribute much with the bat and New Zealand were reduced to 73/6 by the end of the 17th over.
Jamie How (22) and Nathan McCullum did some damage control with a partnership of 48 runs for the seventh wicket. McCullum scored first World Cup fifty off 72 balls but departed soon after. He scored 52 runs that included three hits to the fence. Daniel Vettori then hit a 43-ball 44 runs with five boundaries to take score to 206. Johnson (4/33) and Tait (3/35) returned impressive figures for Australia.
Needing 207 runs to win, the Australian openers raised 133 runs in just under 19 overs. Haddin raced to 55 runs from just 50 balls with eight fours while Watson registered his successive half century in this World Cup. He hit 62 runs that came from 61 balls with six fours and a six.
New Zealand struck through Hamish Bennett who removed both the openers in the same over and Tim Southee removed skipper Ricky Ponting who could score only 12 runs. Michael Clarke (24) and Cameroon White (22) saw the Aussies home with a 40-run partnership for the unbeaten fourth wicket. The win also meant that Australia retained the Chappell-Hadlee Trophy with them. Mitchell Johnson was declared the player of the match for his 4/33 that set-up the Australian win.