Trans-Tasman Trophy, Final: New Zealand vs Australia - Things which went wrong for the hosts

Australia were crowned the inaugural Trans-Tasman T20 champions after they defeated New Zealand by 19 runs (D/L method) in the final at the Eden Park on Wednesday.

Chasing the Kiwis' total of 150/9, Australia were cruising at 121/3 after 14.4 overs when rain stopped play and the Aussies were awarded the trophy.

The David Warner-led team remained unbeaten with a fifth successive win in the series that gifted them the trophy and lifted them from 7th to 2nd position in the ICC T20I rankings.

Now, let us have a look at the factors that led to New Zealand's loss.

#4 Batting collapse

New Zealand chose to bat after skipper Kane Williamson won the toss at the Eden Park and Australia's stand-in captain David Warner was content with bowling first for the fifth time in a row.

Williamson once again believed that a used surface would possibly become more difficult to bat on, even though Australia pulled-off the highest-ever run chase in T20I in history to beat the Kiwis by 5 wickets at the same venue, last week.

Openers Martin Guptill and Colin Munro started the hosts' innings on a bright note but could not convert their healthy start to a big score.

Inside 10 overs, half of the hosts' batsmen were back in the dugout courtesy of Ashton Agar's perfect length.

Ross Taylor (43*) was the lone Kiwi batsman to put up a fight as the Black Caps could not keep their ship steady and suffered a batting collapse.

They kept losing wickets at regular intervals and posted a below-par total of 150/9 in 20 overs.

#3 Bowlers being too expensive

When you are defending a below-par score of 150 against a team that has been on a spectacular winning spree, your bowlers need to pull up their socks and bring out their A-game.

New Zealand's strike bowlers Trent Boult and Tim Southee remained wicketless and proved to be most expensive as Aussie batsmen made merry during their run-chase.

Boult gave away 27 runs in 3 overs, while Southee was looted for 21 runs in 2 overs.

Mitchell Santner accounted 29 runs in 3.4 overs and Colin Munro conceded 18 in 2 but both of them got one wicket each.

Ish Sodhi, with an economy of 5.25 and a wicket to his name, was the most successful New Zealand bowler as Australia won by 19 runs (D/L method).

#2 Not learning from their past mistakes

T20 cricket is evolving at a rapid pace and the teams need to learn from their mistakes quickly to adapt.

Australia pulled-off the highest-ever run chase in T20I in history against the Kiwis last week but the hosts did not make any amends in their faulty strategy and kept making the same mistakes in the Eden Park repeat.

Until last week, the team chasing had won only one of the last seven T20Is in Auckland but the Aussies defied all logic when they chased down 244 with 7 balls remaining.

Bowling had not been a strong suit for New Zealand in the T20 series but they did considerably well with the bat. Kane Williamson could have tried batting second in the final after a failed attempt to defends mammoth score last week.

#1 Not being able to contain the Aussie batsmen

Chasing a modest target of 151, Australian openers David Warner and D'Arcy Short came out all guns blazing and started dealing in boundaries from the word go.

Tim Southee and Trent Boult struggled to control the run flow as their fielders added insult to injury by dropping catches and making plenty of misfields.

Short was the star of the run chase, belting three sixes and six fours en route to 50 from 30 balls.

Warner (25) and Short (50) fired the visitors to 72 inside 8 overs before both the openers were removed in quick succession by Ish Sodhi and Colin Munro.

Mitchell Santner then got rid of Ashton Agar to reduce the Aussies to 84/3 in 10.3 overs.

Then, the men in form Glenn Maxwell (20*) and Aaron Finch (18*) guided Australia to 121/3 in 14.4 overs before the play was interrupted by rain.

Eventually, the game was called off and the best team of the tournament Australia were declared winners by 19 runs (D/L method).