RESULT
Tour Match (D/N), Canberra, October 23, 2015, New Zealand tour of Australia
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(45.2/50 ov, T:308) 205

N Zealanders won by 102 runs

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Latham ton sets up win for New Zealanders

The well-drilled New Zealanders exposed familiar flaws in Australia's young batsmen on their way to a dominant opening performance, trouncing the Prime Minister's XI by 102 runs at Manuka Oval, despite the absence of their resting captain Brendon McCullum

New Zealanders 8 for 307 (Latham 131, Guptill 94, Behrendorff 3-55) beat Prime Minister's XI 205 (Carters 74, Voges 55, Neesham 3-23, Boult 3-27) by 102 runs
Scorecard
New pink ball, same old problems. The well-drilled New Zealanders exposed familiar flaws in Australia's young batsmen on their way to a dominant opening performance, trouncing the Prime Minister's XI by 102 runs at Manuka Oval, despite the absence of their resting captain Brendon McCullum.
The national selector Rod Marsh had described this as "one of the strongest Prime Minister's XI sides we have selected in recent years", but the inclusion of probable Test players such as Peter Siddle, Usman Khawaja, Joe Burns, Cameron Bancroft and Adam Voges allowed the tourists to strike an early psychological blow in conditions similar to those expected for the inaugural day-night, pink-ball Test at Adelaide Oval next month.
Marshalled by stand-in captain Tim Southee, the New Zealanders did so in fine style, running up a healthy 8 for 307, thanks largely to an opening stand of 196 between Martin Guptill and Tom Latham. While Guptill fell short of his century, Latham carried on to 131, shrugging off the loss of both Hamish Rutherford and Ross Taylor for ducks.
Southee and the highly impressive Trent Boult then made the pink ball speak in a language still foreign to the local batsmen, slicing the top off the PM's XI innings with full, swinging deliveries they will hope to replicate during the Tests. Khawaja, Bancroft and Burns were all hoping to press their claims this night, but none could find a way to survive as the invitational team slid quickly to 3 for 13, and more or less out of contention.
Of the international batsmen present, only Voges could make any headway, and his neat 55, following 81 for Western Australia in his last Matador Cup start, shows evidence he has pulled himself out of an early-season dry spell that reaped just 50 runs in five innings. The Australian Capital Territory product Ryan Carters then played with invention and intelligence, though never in with a realistic chance of hauling in the target.
On an overcast Canberra afternoon, Siddle and Jason Behrendorff found only the merest fraction of early movement, allowing Guptill and Latham to get quickly into stride. The visibility of the pink ball did not appear to be a major issue for batsmen, fielders or spectators, and the PM's XI captain Michael Hussey appeared to have little answer to the long stride of Guptill and the power of Latham.
Guptill's exit opened up one end, and both Rutherford and Taylor would have been miffed to be out without scoring to the functional spin-bowling of David Hussey and Ashton Agar. Jimmy Neesham and Mitchell Santner contributed cameos to support Latham, and a healthy tally was posted.
Khawaja had admitted the PM's XI did not get much in the way of preparation for this game, by dint of the fact they assembled on the Thursday night for a Friday game. Even so, his brief stay was not convincing, missing a swinging full toss by Southee to be nearly lbw before driving optimistically at Boult and edging into the slips.
Bancroft's Test credentials have been endorsed by plenty of sound judges, but if he is to be a success he will have to stretch further forward than he did to Southee, who found late away-swing to turn the young West Australian around and flick the outside of off stump - a fine ball that could have been better played. Burns looked momentarily better, but he was tempted into a drive at Boult and dragged onto the stumps.
From this position, the PM's XI could hope only to minimise the margin, and Voges, and then Carters, showed good presence of mind. They were helped by the fact that the ball did not deign to move much once it had lost most of its shine, as Southee rotated his bowling resources.
In addition to their attractive batting and precise bowling, the New Zealanders also excelled notably in the field. Santner clutched a wonderfully athletic catch low to the ground to dismiss Agar, before Doug Bracewell threw down the stumps to account for Siddle.
At the start of the day, the two teams had been greeted by Australia's new Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull amid considerable fanfare. But Turnbull was gone not only from Manuka but also Canberra by the evening, moving on to other engagements. By contrast, the Australian selectors may find themselves without that kind of mobility should New Zealand continue to play as well as they did here - batting talent is not so easy to fly in.

Daniel Brettig is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo. @danbrettig

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