Trans-Tasman Trophy, Final: New Zealand vs Australia - Things which went wrong for the hosts

T20 Tri Series Final - New Zealand v Australia

Australia were crowned the inaugural Trans-Tasman T20 champions after they defeated New Zealand by 19 runs (D/L method) in the final at the Eden Park on Wednesday.

Chasing the Kiwis' total of 150/9, Australia were cruising at 121/3 after 14.4 overs when rain stopped play and the Aussies were awarded the trophy.

The David Warner-led team remained unbeaten with a fifth successive win in the series that gifted them the trophy and lifted them from 7th to 2nd position in the ICC T20I rankings.

Now, let us have a look at the factors that led to New Zealand's loss.

#4 Batting collapse

New Zealand chose to bat after skipper Kane Williamson won the toss at the Eden Park and Australia's stand-in captain David Warner was content with bowling first for the fifth time in a row.

Williamson once again believed that a used surface would possibly become more difficult to bat on, even though Australia pulled-off the highest-ever run chase in T20I in history to beat the Kiwis by 5 wickets at the same venue, last week.

Openers Martin Guptill and Colin Munro started the hosts' innings on a bright note but could not convert their healthy start to a big score.

Inside 10 overs, half of the hosts' batsmen were back in the dugout courtesy of Ashton Agar's perfect length.

Ross Taylor (43*) was the lone Kiwi batsman to put up a fight as the Black Caps could not keep their ship steady and suffered a batting collapse.

They kept losing wickets at regular intervals and posted a below-par total of 150/9 in 20 overs.