NZ VS AUS - Final, England, Australia, New Zealand T20I Tri-Series, 2018

A day that upended your expectations then. High scores, balls flying into the crowd, no rain and a well-contested nerve-wracker you thought? Not quite. A slow pitch instead, where Australia ran over New Zealand early and paddled through two rain breaks to finally get home. A Test series in South Africa awaits Australia while New Zealand will be hosting England for a full-fledged tour. Hope you liked the coverage. This is Pratyush Sinha taking leave alongside Pradeep Krishnamurthy, Vinod Kumar and Rishi Roy. Cya around, dancing in the rains, ta-ta!

Warner - captain, Australia: "Over the moon. I asked the guys to be clinical and try to execute everything with the bat and ball with energy. If we look at the last few months, people were talking about us not taking the format seriously. I couldn't be any happier with this side. It just proves the great depth we have in Australian cricket. If you can execute your skills at Big Bash level, there's no reason you cannot do that here too. The pitch was a little slower today."

Williamson - captain, New Zealand: "Not a good start by us. We didn't reassess well in the middle overs. The wicket was different. Another 20 would have been really competitive. Once again, Australia, with the ball, they held it back. They were dominant and ultra positive. We weren't able to take early wickets. You always want to look at your performance rather than look at the results. And we have had some good performances. We need some freedom and need to play with some positivity. We did look to go out with intent all series but came up against a strong Australian side. A tough One-Day series against a strong English side is next."

Maxwell - Player of the Series: "We came here to do a job. Was great for us. It was a different atmosphere for us tonight. We were consistent in the series. For a guy in the middle order, it's not easy to be consistent. We played good cricket again. Pleased for all of us. Pleased to play bit of a role (in the triseries win)."

Agar - Player of the Match: "The length has to be perfect, whether you're bowling at WACA or here. You need a sighter at this ground. I couldn't believe it was this small. This has been the most enjoyable tour for me. We are all having fun. The boys gel really well."

Let not the rain dampen the spirits in which Australia have played this tri-series tournament under David Warner. Starting at No.7, Australia are now the second-ranked T20I team in the world, and by just decimal points behind Pakistan, having won their sixth game on the trot to equal their longest winning streak in Twenty20 Internationals. The win was set up by the bowlers, who saw through all the talks of bats and sixes and high scores to unmask the real Eden Park pitch, which was responsive to change of pace tonight. Agar starred with his three wickets, building well on Stanlake and Richardson's efforts to send back Guptill and Munro inside a fiery powerplay. And then Short took off until rain put the brakes on, twice. But it can only do so much.

21:37 Local Time, 09:37 GMT, 15:07 IST: Great, the game's done. With the rain abating late and the ground needing a lot of make-up, a timely restart was out of question. As a result, Australia have won the final by 19 runs (DLS method).

Thankfully there's an in-house DJ who's hooked the crowd that's managed to precipitate the rain. Yes, there are some potential Thursday late-risers.

22:26 Local Time, 09:26 GMT, 14:56 IST: Time to reveal the pitch at the Eden Park again. Covers coming off ...

22:16 Local Time, 09:16 GMT, 14:46 IST: There's no good news yet. It's raining cats and dogs in Auckland. You'll have to wait..

22:08 Local Time, 09:08 GMT, 14:38 IST: Hey, see who's here. Rain. It's loving it out there. Covers are back for what looks like another passing shower. Australia need just 30 but this hasn't been as easy as they thought, has it been?

Santner to Finch, SIX, lifted down the ground. From round the wicket, with the angle only helping the shot. Picked the length and boom!

Santner to Finch, 2 runs, fuller, turned wide of mid-wicket

Santner to Maxwell, 1 run, not completely back, so he's not able to take full toll of these drag-down kinda balls. Worked round the corner

Santner to Finch, 1 run, mistimes the pull shot to square leg

Santner to Finch, no ball, 2 runs, that's a high, high full toss. Swatted away, there's Chapman at long-on who's caught it. Sees himself parrying over, throws the ball in the air, and takes the rebound as he's mid-air trying to jump back inside the ropes. Time for a free-hit!

Mitchell Santner [3.0-0-16-1] is back into the attack

Australia need 43 runs in 36 balls. Here's Santner to wrap the spin off for the evening

Ish Sodhi to Maxwell, no run, flat and wide, the leg break spins away and flummoxes Maxwell's big-handed cut shot. Off the toe end. 4-0-21-1 for Sodhi tonight

Ish Sodhi to Finch, 1 run, tucks the googly nicely to backward square leg