After producing 25 one-sided matches, the 2023 World Cup sprung into action with consecutive thrillers. The day after South Africa beat Pakistan by one wicket at Chennai, Australia defeated New Zealand by five runs at Dharamsala.

New Zealand needed 43 in three overs with two wickets in hand, but Jimmy Neesham and Trent Boult brought that down to 19 from the last over. Mitchell Starc’s wayward second ball went for five wides, but some outstanding fielding restricted Neesham to three consecutive twos.

With seven to score off two balls, Neesham fell short in his dash for a second run. Matt Henry could not score off the last ball, and that was that.

The 771 runs are now the highest match aggregate at the men’s World Cup, surpassing the 754 in the South Africa-Sri Lanka encounter from earlier in this edition of the World Cup. This is also the fourth-highest in all ODIs: with 872 runs, the famous Johannesburg match of 2006 holds the record.

Despite the outcome, New Zealand are above Australia in the points table. Both sides have won four out of six matches, but New Zealand (+1.232) are ahead of Australia’s (+0.97) net run rate.

Earlier in the day, Australia posted 383-9 after being asked to bat, four days after amassing 399-8 against the Netherlands. The platform was set by Travis Head (109 in 67 balls), in his first match of the World Cup, and David Warner (81 in 65). They added 175 in 19.1 overs for the first wicket, smashing a plethora of records en route.

Contributions also came from Glenn Maxwell (41 in 24 balls) and Pat Cummins (37 in 14) even as Glenn Phillips finished with 3-38 and Boult with 3-77.

New Zealand’s chase was put on track by Rachin Ravindra, who struck 116 in 89 balls, adding 96 in 86 balls with Daryl Mitchell (54 in 51) and continuing thereafter. Neesham chipped in with a 39-ball 58 as well, but Josh Hazlewood (2-70) and Cummins (2-66) kept chipping away at the wickets. After claiming four wickets in each of his three ODIs, Adam Zampa returned 3-74.