On This Day in 2005: When Ricky Ponting's 55-ball 98 powered Australia to 214 in first-ever T20I, beat NZ by 44 runs

On This Day in 2005, history was scripted as international cricket welcomed its newest format – T20. Ricky Ponting-led Australia and Stephen Flemming's New Zealand were the two teams who faced off in the first-ever T20I match that was played on February 17, 2005, at Auckland's Eden Park.

Ponting led from the front as he blasted 55-ball 98 as Australia amassed as many as 214 runs in 20 overs before the sealed the match with a historic victory over New Zealand by 44 runs.

Aussie skipper Ponting won the toss and opted to bat. Australia did not have the best start as openers Matthew Hayden (1 off 3 balls) and Michael Clarke (7 off 4 balls) were dismissed for single-digit scores leaving Australia at 10 for 1 and the 21 for 2. It was Ponting who showed what the shortest format had in store in the future. His strike-rate, close to 200, was so out of character yet it left the spectators spellbound with its charm. He hammered five sixes and eight boundaries en route to then highest T20I score of 98. He remained unbeaten, while he received just enough support from the likes of Simon Katich and Michael Hussey down the order.

Ponting's knock overshadowed Australia's poor start as the tourists went on to post a massive total of 214 runs in 20 overs in cricket history's maiden T20I.

In reply to Australia's innings, the Kiwi openers began to hit right from the beginning. Australia's Michael Kasprowicz broke the opening stand as he dismissed Flemming. But by then, the duo had already scored 49 runs in 5.1 overs. The momentum was broken as Kasprowicz made another dismissal on the very next ball as one-down batsman Mathew Sinclair walked back for a golden duck.

New Zealand suffered further blow when they lost McCullum in the eighth over. By then they had 67 runs on the board with the opener scoring close to half of those runs. New Zealand's No. 4 batsman Scott Styris became the second batsman in T20Is to score a fifty as he top-scored for the Kiwis with 39-ball 66. However, that was not good enough and New Zealand needed a knock like Ponting's.

Unfortunately, that did not happen and the BlackCaps collapsed from 67 for 3 to 179 all-out, with no one after Styris scoring in double digits, barring the No. 9 Jeff Wilson.

For his 55-ball 98, Ponting was awarded the Player of the Match and Australia became the team to win the first-ever T20I match. The game had plenty of anecdotes that are still remembered, the best one being Glenn McGrath's attempt to mimic Trevor Chappell's infamous under-arm delivery off the last ball, for which he was shown a red card by umpire Billy Bowden. The Australian spearhead then returned to his bowling mark to claim the final wicket of Kyle Mills off the last ball of the game.