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Australia vs New Zealand (AUS vs NZ) ICC World Cup Live Cricket Score.
The ICC World Cup 2011 match for today, the 8th one, featuring Australia vs New Zealand (NZ vs AUS), is happening at the Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium at Nagpur.

Australia won the toss against New Zealand and chose to field.

New Zealand: 104/6 (25.5 overs)

MJ Guptill b Watson 10 (25b 2x4 0x6)
BB McCullum c Krejza b Tait 16 (12b 3x4 0x6)
JD Ryder c Haddin b Johnson 25 (31b 6x4 0x6)
LRPL Taylor b Tait 7(22b 1x4 0x6)
James Franklin c Haddin b Johnson 0 (3b 0x4 0x6)
Scott Styris c Haddin b Tait 0 (4b 0x4 0x6)
Jamie How (not out) 15 (36b 0x4 0x6)
NL McCullum (not out) 17 (24b 1x4 0x6)

Extras: 14
One of either Dayle Hadlee (Richard's brother) or Ian Chappell will be wearing a smug smile on Friday at the end of the Australia-New Zealand brawl at the Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium in Nagpur. If your ears are being deafened by the clamour of sub-continental fans thrilled at having gotten the gamut of cricket’s spectrum for a full two months, brace yourself.

The trans-Tasman rivalry just got added to the din, with the two cricketing boards suggesting that the winner of the match will not just get vital points, but also get to hang on to the Chappell-Haddlee trophy for a year. As the teams contest their age-old give-and-take in India, fans will be treated to a show of patriotic vendetta along with the cricketing sparring. While both sides are coming off wins against lower-ranked sides, New Zealand routed their opponent brutally, while Australia managed to escape the consequences of a mediocre batting performance with some blistering pace bowling.

On Tuesday, the Dutch batsmen were able to extract 292 runs from the Nagpur wicket. Earlier, in the warm-up game New Zealand played here, their total of 311 was brashly endangered by Ireland, before they prevailed. New Zealand will, therefore, find the wicket kindlier for the experience and sweet memories from that outing. For all your money, the Vidarbha Stadium can be expected to produce another flurry of runs on Friday as well.

Australia

Australia’s batting has always had a good opening combination. With Adam Gilchrist and Matthew Hayden providing blazing starts at the helm, it was always easy for the middle order to show form even when they lacked it. At present though, while Shane Watson has managed to replicate one half of the traditional Aussie impetus, Brad Haddin has not been of the same pedigree alongside him.

As a result, the middle order has had to beat a path of its own more often. While Ricky Ponting seemed to want to get a good grip on the track, playing the cautious bat against Prosper Utseya’s spin, Michael Clarke felt some good bat on ball against Zimbabwe, and will be skipping down in response to Daniel Vettori’s flight. Despite being a player who is comfortable attacking spin, David Hussey has strangely been falling to spinners all-month long. However, before having been second-guessed by Ray Price, he had struck a couple of blows to get the Aussies going towards the end of their innings. Cameron White has been finding it hard to time the ball, but Ponting is not worried too much. He averages 47 in India, and should find it easy to loft the ball straight on this flat pitch.

It was in Nagpur that Jason Krejza debuted with 12 wickets against the Indian Test side. On Monday, he troubled the Zimbabweans with his flight and tweak, turning the ball square on occasion. While the Aussie batsmen had struggled against spin, it was high pace and aerial movement that Shaun Tait, Mitchell Johnson and Brett Lee used to knock over the Zimbabweans. Johnson picked up four, bowling full and straight, sliding a couple of quick swingers off the outside edge, and will hope to keep his radar going the same. The Kiwis will be in two minds whether to focus their preparations on Australia’s pace attack or on the spinning track.

The pinch of Michael-Hussey-deprivation felt by the Australian side will be aggravated now that he has had a good recovery from his hamstring surgery, becoming fit enough to be considered for the domestic Sheffield Shield matches in Australia. Add to that the great run of scores he had in the 2010 Chappell-Hadlee series and Australia’s dire need of a middle-order batsman capable of standing firm on the turning wickets, and Australian selector Greg Chappell might well be getting some hate-mail.

New Zealand

If the Australians are anxiously training against spin in the nets, New Zealand should be equally concerned about their own discomfort against turn. Having seen Harbhajan Singh and Ravichandran Ashwin topple the Kiwi batsmen in the practice game on Thursday, the likes of Krejza, Smith, Hussey and Clarke will undoubtedly rub their palms with delight when their turn comes. Jesse Ryder virtually yearned for the pavillion against India, flat-batting mistimed shots in trying to cope with the spinners, while Ross Taylor got out before he could bring out his repertoire of sweeps and flicks.

That the New Zealand bowlers utterly crushed the timid Kenyan batsmen at Chennai will not count for too much when Watson and Haddin take strike on Friday. Jacob Oram got some lift with his height, and has displayed a knack for picking up wickets early in his spells. Although Hamish Bennett, who picked up four wickets on Sunday, was effective with his tight lines, he may find it hard to keep his place if Kyle Mills is fit after having missed the team’s tournament opener due to a back problem. Mills does not, however, have a particularly forceful record against Australia, with an average of 31 and economy of over 5, and unless he’s fully fit, Bennett might have the edge over him.

Daniel Vettori is not as dominant against the Australians as he is with the rest of the world. His career bowling average of 31.32 and economy of 4.13 both shoot up playing against the Aussies. But playing on the turning Indian tracks may put a different spin on his stats.