Australia’s impressive form positions them as a major threat, alongside India, in the upcoming T20 World Cup in 2026. The Australian team, which won the T20 World Cup title four years ago, is once again asserting its claim for the trophy. Following victories in T20 series against England, West Indies, and South Africa, the former champions have now defeated New Zealand. A record-breaking century by captain Mitchell Marsh helped Australia defeat New Zealand by 3 wickets in the third and final T20 match, thereby winning the series.
Australia had also won the first match of this series being played in New Zealand, while the second match was called off due to rain on October 3. The final match was played in Mount Maunganui on Saturday, where Australia’s pace attack unsettled New Zealand’s batting order. Batting first, the home team New Zealand lost 4 wickets for only 77 runs in 9.1 overs, and the four batsmen who got out together scored only 26 runs.
However, from the other end, opener Tim Seifert (48) was scoring runs rapidly. Along with captain Michael Bracewell and all-rounder James Neesham, he somehow took the team to 156 runs at the loss of 9 wickets. For Australia, Sean Abbott took the most wickets with 3, while Josh Hazlewood and Xavier Bartlett also took 2-2 wickets.
Then came the turn of Australia’s captain, Mitchell Marsh, who had already led the team to victory by playing a stormy innings in the first T20 match. In that match, Marsh could only reach 85 runs, but this time, the explosive opener scored a century. However, he didn’t get any support from the other side and the other 5 batsmen in the top-6 of the batting order together scored only 21 runs. None of them could even reach double figures. But Marsh alone thrashed the Kiwi bowlers and scored his first T20I career century in just 50 balls.
Australia won this match by 3 wickets, scoring 160 runs in 18 overs, out of which 103 runs (8 fours, 7 sixes) came from captain Marsh’s bat alone. Not only this, with this innings, Marsh also broke a 20-year-old record. Actually, in 2005, the first match in T20 International history was played between Australia and New Zealand. Then, Ricky Ponting, who was the captain of Australia, scored an unbeaten 98 runs. After that, no batsman from Australia could score such a big score against New Zealand. Now Marsh has claimed this record after 20 years.