Australia tour of New Zealand, 2021 was started with the first T20 match on Feb 22, 2021, in Hagley Oval, Christchurch. Australia was facing New Zealand in T20 after a long duration of 3 years. Josh Philippe was going to debut his T20 international for Australia in that Aus vs NZ 2021 series match. Aaron Finch, the Australian captain won the toss and invited the opposition to bat first. Martin Guptill and Tim Seifert came out to the middle to open and Daniel Sams got the new ball in hand.
New Zealand did not get a good start and lost their 2 wickets at the score of 11 runs in 2.2 overs. Kane Williamson at the number 3 position tried to handle the situation but could not stay longer and was sent back by Daniel Sams. New Zealand had lost 3 quick wickets and came under pressure but an excellent inning of Devon Conway covered up the damage. He made 99 runs from 59 balls with ten 4s and three 6s and became the top scorer of the match. Finally, NZ had put a defending total of 184 runs on the scoreboard and Australia got the target of 185 runs to win the match. Daniel Sams and Jhye Richardson did an excellent job with the ball and took 2 wickets each for their team.
Matthew Wade and the captain himself, Aaron Finch, came out to the middle to chase the target. Tim Southee got the new ball to open the attack. The top order of Australia failed to give a good start and Australia had lost 4 wickets at the score of 19 runs only. Mitchell Marsh tried well to handle the situation but could not get enough support from other players and the entire team was bowled out at the score of 131 runs only in 17.3 overs. Marsh contributed 45 runs from 33 balls but could not save the match. Ish Sodhi gave an awesome performance with the ball and took 4 wickets in the 1st T20 match of NZ vs Aus 2021 bilateral series.
New Zealand won the 1st T20 match of New Zealand vs Australia series 2021 by 53 runs and Devon Conway was the Man of the Match for his match-winning inning.