The 3rd T20 international match of New Zealand vs Australia bilateral series 2021 was fought at Westpac Stadium, Wellington on 3 March 2021. NZ made a change and brought Mark Chapman in place of Santner and Meredith was playing his first T20 international for Australia in place of Daniel Sams. NZ won the toss and decided to have the ball in hand first. Matthew Wade and Aaron Finch came out to the middle to open and Tim Southee got the new ball in hand to open the attack.
Australia did not get a good start and lost the first wicket of Matthew Wade very early in the 1.3 overs. He was dismissed by Trent Boult in his very first over and then Josh Philippe came to join Aaron Finch. Both the players were looking excellent with the bat and had made a crucial partnership of 83 runs for the first wicket. Afterward, Josh Philippe was sent back by Ish Sodhi in 9.6 overs. After the dismissal, Glenn Maxwell came on the crease and played an outstanding inning of 70 runs from just 31 deliveries that helped the Australian team to reach the score of 208 runs. The captain, Aaron Finch, also played a captaincy inning of 69 runs from 44 balls. New Zealand got the target of 209 runs from 120 balls to win the 3rd T20 match of NZ vs Aus 2021 series.
Martin Guptill and Tim Seifert were sent on the crease to chase the target and Jhye Richardson got the responsibility to open the attack with the new ball. New Zealand had made 59 runs at the loss of 2 wickets at the end of the mandatory Powerplay. But the unbelievable bowling performance of Ashton Agar demolished New Zealand batsmen and wickets started falling at regular intervals. Ashton Agar bowled really well and took 6 wickets and the entire team bowled out at 144 runs only in 17.1 overs.
Australia won the 3rd match of NZ vs Aus T20 series 2021 by 64 runs and Ashton Agar was the Man of the Match for his match-winning bowling performance.