Thunderous Boult and Supercharged Starc

All the talk in the lead-up to this match was about Eden Park's tiny straight boundaries. One observer joked that 400 might be a par score. At centre-wicket training on the outer oval, Australia's batsmen clubbed six after six down the ground during the week. At times it looked more like a home-run derby than cricket practice: swing, batter batter, swing, batter batter.

If only the batters paid more attention to the other kind of swing. It is one thing to punt throwdowns from batting coach Michael di Venuto into the stands, quite another to do so off hooping 140kph deliveries from Trent Boult. But Australia's batsmen weren't alone: the New Zealanders also fell victim to high-class swing bowling from Mitchell Starc.

What many people expected to be one of the World Cup's highest-scoring matches became one of its lowest. And yet, one of its most thrilling. For the first time in this tournament a large, packed stadium was treated to a contest worthy of the hype. For the first time in this tournament, two Full Members played out a match that went down to the wire.

That was largely thanks to two men of similar ilk. Boult and Starc are both 25. They both emerged around the same time, making their Test debuts in the 1-1 series draw in Australia in late 2011. But whereas Boult has made his name as a Test bowler and only recently become a one-day regular, Starc has been a limited-overs fixture for Australia while struggling to hold down a Test spot.

Here, they converged in an international match for the first time since their shared debut Test series. And what a convergence it was, both men controlling the swing of the white ball, moving it into the right-handers and away from the left-handers, keeping the occasional one straight to keep them guessing and jamming in perfect yorkers.

The results? Boult: 10-3-27-5. Starc: 9-0-28-6. That one remaining over of Starc's might well have been the difference in the match. Brendon McCullum and Michael Clarke are both renowned as attacking captains. When McCullum sensed Boult was on top of the Australians, he bowled him out, his last five-over spell bringing 5 for 3.

Clarke did not do the same when Starc was dictating terms, having picked up 3 for 24 off his first six overs. After the match Clarke said he took Starc off because it is hard to ask a fast man to bowl ten overs straight, yet Starc's first spell was split in half by the innings break. He built the pressure, Clarke and Mitchell Johnson relieved it.

Johnson had found no swing in his first spell and his first four overs had leaked 52 runs. Nothing changed when he came back on to replace Starc: 16 came off his first over back, and New Zealand were in control again. When Starc returned, he continued swinging the ball and forced Australia back into the match with three wickets in his next three overs.

Starc became the first Australian to take six-for twice in ODIs, having done it last month against India at the MCG. It was somehow fitting that the result really came down to Boult having to survive the final two balls of Starc's ninth over, which he negotiated successfully, and which allowed Kane Williamson to hit the winning runs at the other end.

Starc had just claimed two wickets in his last over, with New Zealand one clean strike from victory. As the final momentum swings took place, belief gave way to serious misgivings among the home fans. Then Williamson hit the winning six.

The buzz when Boult had the ball in his second spell was almost as electric. There were 40,053 spectators in Eden Park and it is hard to imagine that any of them let their eyes wander as he swung his way through Australia's middle and lower order. It felt as though something would happen every ball.

He had Glenn Maxwell and Mitchell Marsh chopping on in one over, Johnson and Starc deceived in another. In amongst it, the New Zealanders set a trap for Clarke, with a short cover in place. Boult delivered the wicket, drawing the Australian captain into a drive on the up. A couple of times his swinging yorkers were millimetres away from getting under the bat.

Earlier in the week, Boult and Tim Southee were rated by Richard Hadlee as New Zealand's finest ever new-ball combination, and it was hard to argue based on the evidence here, although Southee gave away a few too many runs. But this was a day that proved ODI cricket need not be all about sixes and fours. Here, 19 wickets fell for 303 runs, in 55.3 overs. Most importantly, it was a contest.

Before the World Cup began, Aaron Finch was asked about bat sizes and field restrictions and the balance between bat and ball. He said that while viewers often liked to see boundaries cleared and 300-plus totals, he enjoyed low-scoring encounters. "When you're defending 180 and you've got nothing to lose," he said at the time, "they can be really exciting games."

The same goes for 150.