Cricket: Aussies talented exponents of Twenty20

David Warner is Australia's new Twenty20 master blaster. Photo / Getty Images

Remember the first Twenty20 international?

Eden Park, February 17, 2005, New Zealand against Australia.

How the shortest version of the game has changed in five years.

That day, the New Zealand players went retro, wearing the old beige strips, grew moustaches, wore the old white towelling hats and Hamish Marshall sported an Afro wig.

Jolly good fun, and all that. Packed house too.

Australia took it all in, then made sure they kept their eyes on the ball.

They hit 214 for five and - with Sachin Tendulkar yesterday breaking another cricket barrier, hitting the first double century in a 50-over international - it's worth recalling Ricky Ponting's contribution to that spectacular night.

The Australian captain, batting No4, hit an unbeaten 98 off 55 balls, with eight fours and five sixes. It was regarded as near unthinkable that a player could hit a Twenty20 century.

Even now, only one player has topped Ponting's effort at Eden Park, West Indian skipper Chris Gayle clubbing 117 off just 57 balls against South Africa in 2007.

There was a lesson out of Ponting's innings, in that he got his runs with cricket shots, not an undignified slog in sight.

Only four players from that game survive in the Twenty20 squads for tonight - Brendon McCullum and Daryl Tuffey, and Australia's shortest-game captain Michael Clarke and Mike Hussey, and even Hussey was a late call-in. The landscape of this game is moving swiftly.

The teams have met just twice since then, Australia winning by 53 runs at Perth in 2007, on the back of Andrew Symonds' unbeaten 85 off 46 balls, and in Sydney 12 months ago, when they got home by a slightly misleading one run - Nathan McCullum hit the last ball for six, but eight were required off it.

Australia's latest top-order blaster is lefthander David Warner, who mashed the West Indies with an 18-ball half century in Sydney this week, second quickest behind Yuvraj Singh's barely believable 12-ball effort against England at Durban in 2007.

Indeed two of the three fastest half centuries belong to Warner.

He's a chunky pocket rocket and if it is argued he's a one-trick pony, unable to make much headway in the other two forms of the game, who cares. His deeds have made him a folk hero to youngsters who like this form of the game best.

The other Australian to watch will be speedster Shaun Tait, 27 last Monday, who touched 160km/h against Pakistan this month.

New Zealand last faced Tait in Perth a year ago, and he's played eight of his 22 ODIs against them, so there should be no surprises.

Neither team can claim to have fully mastered Twenty20 cricket.

The first two world champions are India (in South Africa in 2007) and Pakistan (in England last year). But never fear, such is the thirst for this stuff that another chance is just round the corner.

The third edition is being staged in the Caribbean from the end of April through May. These two games are the last chances for both teams to fine-tune their plans.


Three Aussies you've never heard of

Daniel Christian (South Australia)

Born in New South Wales, 26-year-old Christian has Aboriginal heritage through his father, making him just the second such player to wear the Australian colours, after fast bowler Jason Gillespie.

Christian is a graduate of Cricket Australia's indigenous cricket programme, and captained the national indigenous development squad during a tour of England last year.

The hard-hitting batsman and fast-medium bowler made his Twenty20 debut on Tuesday night against the West Indies. In domestic Twenty20, he's bagged 21 wickets at 18.71 apiece from his 24 games, and his 302 runs have roared along at a strike rate of 144.49.

Travis Birt (Tasmania)

The Victorian-born 28-year-old, nicknamed Edgar, bowls right-arm medium pace and bats the other way round.

He's had two Twenty20 internationals against Pakistan and the West Indies this month, so he's still finding his feet.

Birt's 93 propelled Tasmania into the domestic one-day final this month. His 29 T20 games for Tasmania have produced 539 runs at 128.33 strike rate.

Like Christian and Smith, a classic example of Australia casting the net wide in preparation for the April-May world Twenty20 championship in the Caribbean, and beyond.

Steven Smith (New South Wales)

The 20-year-old legspinner has made encouraging progress so far in the bowling style where every exponent is automatically compared to You Know Who.

Smith made his Twenty20 debut against Pakistan this month, after first surfacing at state level in 2007-08.

He can bat too, with a couple of first-class centuries to his credit. Smith played in the Champions League final, which NSW won late last year, so he's getting around.

His 23 Twenty20 games for his state have produced 22 wickets at 15.45, with an economy rate of 7.31.

Smith's philosophy in the shortest game sounds sensible too: "In 20-over bowling my main goal is to sort of miss the middle of the bat."