New Zealand elect to bat first against Australia in T20 final

Kane Williamson. Pic/ AFP

New Zealand won the toss and elected to bat against Australia in the final of the T20 tri-series in Auckland on Wednesday. "It looks a good surface," Black caps skipper Kane Williamson said. "Last time batting first we did OK, so hopefully we can get the runs on the board and defend them." Australia are heavy favourites after comfortably winning all four of their matches in the series, including a world record run chase of 245 against New Zealand last Friday.

Victory in the final would see them become the world's top-ranked T20 team. In contrast, New Zealand have won only one match on the way to the decider, qualifying because they finished the round-robin matches with a better run rate than England. The match is being played on the same batter-friendly wicket used last Friday, which combined with Eden Park's notoriously short boundaries promises another run-fest.

Australian captain David Warner said he was happy to bowl first as his side had proved its prowess when chasing. "The way we're playing that's probably working in our favour at the moment," he said. "It's a tiny ground but at the end of the day you've got to adapt and take wickets up front, that's the key in the first six (overs)."

New Zealand: Martin Guptill, Colin Munro, Kane Williamson (capt), Ross Taylor, Mark Chapman, Colin de Grandhomme, Tim Seifert, Mitchell Santner, Tim Southee, Ish Sodhi, Trent Boult.

Australia: David Warner (capt), D'Arcy Short, Chris Lynn, Glenn Maxwell, Aaron Finch, Marcus Stoinis, Alex Carey, Ashton Agar, Andrew Tye, Kane Richardson, Billy Stanlake. Umpires: Wayne Knights (NZL), Chris Brown (NZL) TV Umpire: Shaun Haig (NZL) Match Referee: Javagal Srinath (IND)

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