There are some great rivalries in cricket, of which Pakistan v India is one and Australia v England is another. But New Zealand vs Australia, two ‘neighbouring’ countries separated by a body of water, certainly has its place among them as well. Though, if we’re honest, it’s probably one that means slightly more to the Kiwis, than it does to the Aussies.
It’s a rivalry that in some ways resembles a Big Brother/Little Brother scenario. Australia, a huge country in the area with a population of 26 million, has always been among the powerhouses of world cricket. The Australian team is the most successful side in ODI World Cups and boasts some of the greatest players the game has seen.
| Head 2 Head | Epic Clashes |
| Team Australia Info | Team New Zealand Info |
New Zealand is like the Little Brother, small in area as a country, but certainly punching above their weight on the cricket field. The two neighbouring countries have always been fun to watch: NZ v AUS T20 World Cup games will be amongst the most interesting in this year's top international cricket competition.
| Matches | Won by NZ | Won by AUS | Draw | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tests (1946-2024) | 62 | 8 | 36 | 18 |
| ODIs (1974-2024) | 142 | 39 | 96 | 0 |
| T20s (2005-2024) | 19 | 5 | 13 | 0 |
Just because this is one of the great rivalries in cricket in terms of passion among the fans and a burning desire between the two sets of players to get one over their neighbours, doesn’t mean that it’s been a close contest.
As you can see from the New Zealand v Australia stats below, Australia have crushed the Kiwis in all three formats over the years.
To be fair to the Black Caps, they’ve been somewhat competitive in ODIs, where they boast their best win percentage against the Aussies across the three formats.
But then again, that shouldn’t come as any huge surprise to cricket fans because ODIs have always been New Zealand’s strongest suit, where excellent fielding- far more important than in Tests- has helped them greatly, as has the fact that their best-ever players have tended to be ODI specialists, rather than Test, or T20 stars. However, Australia is still a lot more successful, with over twice as many wins than New Zealand. The two also had 7 no-result ODI matchups. And it’s in T20Is that the Black Caps have taken the biggest beatings of all. Yes, it’s a relatively small sample of just 19 matches, but NZ has won just five.
As for New Zealand v Australia cricket Tests, the Australians have won over four times the number of Tests that New Zealand has won against them.
The year of 2023 was not bad for the rivalry, with only one match in the ODI format. The game took place on 27 March in the group stage of the Cricket World Cup, and it saw Australia win by 5 runs. Both qualified for the knockout stage, with only Australia passing the semis and winning against India in the finals by 6 wickets.
As for 2024, we had a few matches in the first few months, most notably in the Test format, where the duo finally met for the first time after more than four years. It was the Australian tour of New Zealand, and the Aussies triumphed in both matches of the Trans-Tasman Trophy. They first won by a whopping 172 runs in a game that lasted from 29 February to 4 March. Then they came out on top by only 3 wickets in the 8–12 March match. The series was part of the ongoing 2023—2025 World Test Championship.
The rivals played three T20I games, the first since New Zealand’s win in October 2022 during the first match of Group 1 from the Super 12. The three matches were also part of the above-mentioned Australian tour of New Zealand, played in preparation for the 2024 T20 World Cup. Australia took all three games, starting with a 6-wicket win, then a triumph by 72 runs, and finally a win by 27 runs with the DLS method. The last one was a big triumph for Australia, as it was the team’s 100th win in the T20Is.
New Zealand v Australia T20I February 2005
This was a pretty uneventful match, Australia posting 214-5 and New Zealand falling well short, scoring just 170 before they were all out.
So why has this made our list? For the very simple reason that this was the first men’s T20I ever played. Back in February 2005, long before the IPL, Big Bash, CPL and numerous World T20s had been played, this was where it all started.
It was a match that wasn’t even really meant to be played. Most countries thought T20 would be played just at domestic level and no-one could have suspected at the time that T20 cricket would become the most popular format of all.
For the record, Australia skipper Ricky Ponting scored a brilliant 98 not out and Michael Kasprowicz took four wickets when New Zealand batted. But the significance of the match lay elsewhere.
New Zealand v Australia February 2015 World Cup Group Stages
A few weeks later, these two contested the World Cup final, but whereas that was a one-sided game with Australia winning with ease, this one was an absolute classic.
After a decent start with the bat, Australia had a disastrous middle-order collapse, mostly instigated by the brilliance of left-arm pace bowler Trent Boult, who helped restrict Australia to a paltry 151 all out, after just 32 overs.
New Zealand, and in particular Brendon McCullum, wasn’t going to mess around in the chase, McCullum getting to 50 off just 24 balls. But that’s when the problems started. After he got out, Mitchell Starc bowled one of the finest spells ever seen in an ODI match, ending up with six wickets, while conceding just 28 runs.
As all other Kiwi batsmen lost their heads, Kane Williamson kept his. At nine wickets down and needing six to win, Willaimson was in no mood to trust Boult, a fantastic bowler but a poor batsman. Williamson took matters into his own hands, depositing Pat Cummins into the stands for six, with New Zealand winning a brilliant game by just one wicket.
Australia v New Zealand February 1981 World Series Cup
The most famous New Zealand v Australia match of all. From high entertainment (see above) to high controversy (this one).
Chasing 236 to win the game and needing six off the last ball to tie, Aussie skipper Greg Chapell instructed younger brother Trevor Chapell to bowl underarm along the ground, thus denying the Kiwi batsman McKechnie the chance to hit the ball for six.
It was a decision lambasted by absolutely everyone in the game, with the possible exception of Australia fans. At the time it (bowling underarm) wasn’t illegal but was very much contrary to the spirit of the game.
The incident instigated a change in the laws to the game to prevent this from happening ever again, but it was too late as far as New Zealand was concerned.
Besides the matches we’ve discussed in the previous section, let’s check others we can witness in 2024.
After the Test games in February and March, the two are not set to play each other in that arena for the rest of the Championship. As for the ODIs, there are also no match-ups on the schedule.
Still, they have a chance to meet each other at the 2024 T20 World Cup. Australia is playing in Group B and New Zealand in Group C. If one is first and the other second in their respective groups, they’ll meet in the Super 8s. Naturally, they also have chances to meet in the knockout stage, too. We’ll see once the event finally kicks off on 1 June 2024. The Super 8s start on 19 June, by which point we’ll know whether the two will play a game.
New Zealand has always been a somewhat curious team. When you compare the size of their population to the likes of India or Pakistan, or even England or Australia, they should be nowhere near being competitive.
But then again, this is the country that has dominated world rugby for decades, so size doesn’t matter (that much) in their case.
The running theme has been that almost every team they’ve ever had has boasted eight or nine players of high-class with the two or three remaining ones being a couple of notches below in terms of ability. And therein lies the problem. It’s why they’ve only ever made two World Cup finals in 13 attempts -they lost it in 2015 to...Australia, and to England in 2019.
Their luck finally started changing after 2020, at least in the Tests and the T20Is. They finally reached the first spot in the Test rankings at the start of 2021, and they even won the inaugural edition of the Test World Championship (2019—21). Also, after appearing in seven T20 World Cups and never getting past the semis, they finally made it to the finals in 2021, where they lost to their biggest rival and the other main subject of this page.
They made their debut in international cricket in 1930 and famously, had to wait 26 years till their first victory when they finally got the better of the West Indies at Eden Park, in Auckland.
One of the great names of the New Zealand cricket team is the aforementioned McCullum- originally a wicket-keeper but also a wonderful batsman and an innovative captain. He was the man in charge when they made the 2015 World Cup final. He holds plenty of records for New Zealand across all formats: most sixes (107), the only player to hit a triple century for the country and most double centuries (4), also ranking in the Top 5 for plenty of other records. With Brendon McCullum, it wasn’t just about the runs, though. He’s seen as one of the most aggressive and entertaining batsmen to ever play the game.
Another great was Daniel Vettori, the bespectacled spin bowler, handy lower-order batsman and thinking captain. He doesn’t top many tables for NZ records but was a wonderful player for them in all three formats throughout the 90s and noughties and has gone on to be a successful coach.
But head and shoulders above them all is Sir Richard Hadlee. One of the four or five greatest all-rounders to ever play the game, his 431 Test wickets are 70 more than anyone else for NZ (Vettori is next), he has the first and second best-ever figures with the ball in an inning including 9/52, the best bowling figures for NZ in a single match and miscellaneous other bowling records. He was also a brilliant number seven with the bat, often winning games from near-on impossible positions.
You could easily make a case for Australia being the most successful team ever in international cricket.
In the Test arena, their current overall win percentage of almost 48% is the highest of any Test nation by some distance, remembering of course that it’s only not higher because in the past there were so many drawn Tests. The runner-up in this field is South Africa, with only 38%, so it’s unlikely that Australia will be dethroned for a long time.
In the ODI format, they’re also by far the most successful side ever, at least in World Cups. Whereas India and the Windies are happy enough to have won it two times each, they’ve won it on six occasions, and they are the current champions, as of 2023. Between 1999 and 2015, they won four of the five taking place during that period, including three in a row.
The one thing they had been missing for a long time was a World T20 title, but they finally rectified that in the 2021 edition, played in the UAE and Oman. The expectations were also high for them to land the 2022 competition, as it was played in their own country, but that win went to the English, with Australia ending their participation in the tournament in the Super 12, only a spot shy from a knockout stage qualification.
Where do we start in terms of mentioning the great stars of the Australia Cricket team? The Aus cricket team has probably contributed more legends to the game than any other, so here are a few that we’ll mention in passing: Dennis Lillee, Steve Waugh, Richie Benaud, Adam Gilchrist, Ian Chapell, Jeff Thompson, Glenn McGrath and Matthew Hayden. But we could be here all day naming Australian greats.
But if we have to pick the greatest of them all, it would be Sir Don Bradman. The Godfather of cricket, the greatest batsman of all time (with the possible exception of Sachin Tendulkar), the man who averaged 99.94 in Test cricket, an average that no-one will ever get near, ever again.
Then there’s Ricky Ponting, who played in a very different era but was cut from the same cloth in terms of talent, the bulk of runs and aura. Also a diminutive figure in size like Bradman, he captained Australia to three World Cups and was in charge during their Golden Period in the noughties.
And finally, Shane Warne. The inimitable beach-blond, slightly chubby, a charismatic genius of a leg spinner. He made leg-spin fun, bamboozled batsmen all over the world, bowled the so-called ‘ball of the century’ and is the second highest-wicket in Tests of all time, with 708 wickets.