WELLINGTON, (Reuters) – The last three games of the New Zealand Twenty20 series against Australia will be played at a closed Wellington Regional Stadium as fans are suspended after the closure of COVID-19 in Auckland, Cricket New Zealand (NZC) said yesterday. NZC moved Sunday’s fifth and final match to Wellington from Tauranga, having already moved the fourth to New Zealand’s capital from Auckland.
Australian spinner Ashton Agar said organizers made the right call.
“They have made sure they have looked after the mental and physical well-being of the players and made the right decision,” he told reporters yesterday. New Zealand’s largest city, Auckland, went into lockdown seven days Sunday after the appearance of a new local case of the coronavirus of unknown origin. New Zealand leads T20 series 2-0 after winning the opening games in Christchurch and Dunedin.
The third game is tomorrow.
New Zealand players from Auckland, Martin Guptill, James Neesham, Mark Chapman and Glenn Phillips were put on hold pending COVID-19 test results, but had been cleared to return to training today, an NZC spokesman said.
With Australia needing to win the last three games to claim the series, Agar said a lack of fans in Wellington could play into the hands of the visitors. “The advantage of home ground always helps when you have a crowd that is behind their home team and that is how it has been so far,” he said. “It’s always a fun crowd here in New Zealand, it’s always a great atmosphere, so for them not to have that especially on a game that the series relies on could be a huge advantage to us.”