Cricket: It may not be real cricket, but it's fun

Australian Ricky Ponting tweaks New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming's 'tach. Also enjoying the fun yesterday were Hamish Marshall (left) and Mathew Sinclair. Picture / Kenny Rodger

Eden Park played host to a cricketing version of The '80s Show last night, complete with some of the finest handlebar moustaches on offer and easily the most outrageous Afro in international sport.

On a night that pace bowler Jason Gillespie's well-established mullet looked positively futuristic, 29,317 people crowded in to watch Australia win the first Twenty20 match in New Zealand, and the first between two test-status teams.

The potted story of the three-hour shootout was that Australia won the toss and careered through to an imposing total of 214 thanks to Ricky Ponting, who struck an incandescent 98 off 55 balls, including eight fours and five mighty sixes.

New Zealand never seriously threatened the target, folding on the last ball of the match for 170, following reasonable contributions from Scott Styris (66 off 39 balls) and Brendon McCullum (36 off 24).

The match ended with fast-bowler Glenn McGrath shaping to deliver the final ball underarm, before he reverted to his conventional action and had Kyle Mills caught on the straight boundary.

Dressed in beige and wearing the old-style flowerpot floppy hats to evoke the memory of their 1980s counterparts, the New Zealanders relished the retro theme. Star of the show was undoubtedly Northern Districts batsman Hamish Marshall, who left all product out of his spring-loaded hair, added a headband and ended up looking like a cross between Leo Sayer and Richard Simmons.

The Twenty20 contest, launched as the possible new face of popular cricket, was almost lost in the sea of dress-up and music, and it would be no surprise if it was eventually reduced to Eleven11, then Seven7 and finally Zero0.

The suggestion is that in time, the players could just come to the entrance of the tunnel, wave briefly to the cameras, and then let the crowd get on with the real business of having a party.

While Marshall's hairstyle was award-winning, several team-mates went beyond the call of duty, particularly Mathew Sinclair with his Erik Estrada impersonations, and a sidelined Daniel Vettori with some simply awful mutton-chops.

Australia - who played along by wearing their old budgerigar yellow costumes - and New Zealand will now head for Wellington to prepare for tomorrow's opening one-dayer of the five-match series.