Australia's resurgence in the ongoing ICC Men's Cricket World Cup has been astounding but nothing surprising about it, considering how dominant they have been in the tournament history as they just know how to do it. Following a hard-fought win against Sri Lanka, the five-time champions have just been unstoppable. After hunting down Pakistan and the Netherlands, Australia beat the trans-Tasman rivals New Zealand to achieve their fourth win in a row and on Saturday, October 28 against the Kiwis they achieved a huge record in Dharamsala.
Australia, riding on Travis Head's rapid ton on his World Cup debut, David Warner's half-century, cameos from skipper Pat Cummins and Josh Inglis, posted a massive total of 388 runs on the board. The opening duo of HEad and Warner came out all guns blazing stitching a 175-run stand in less than 20 overs before Mitchell Marsh, Inglish, Glenn Maxwell and Cummins all played their part. Cummins especially with a 14-ball 37 cameo nearly took the game away from the Black Caps.
The score was now Australia's third 350-plus team score in as many matches and the five-time champions became the first team to achieve the feat in three consecutive games in ODI cricket.
Last three ODI team totals for Australia
367/9 vs Pakistan in Bengaluru - October 20
399/8 vs Netherlands in Delhi - October 25
388 vs New Zealand in Dharamsala - October 28
Australia won the first two games quite comfortably with big margins but New Zealand dragged them to the final over in probably the best game of the tournament. The difference was just five runs between two teams as Jimmy Neesham and Rachin Ravindra didn't let Australia breathe even for one bit in their defence before the latter prevailed to register their fourth win of the World Cup on the bounce.
