Australia vs New Zealand, 1st ODI - Live Cricket Score, Commentary

Hello and welcome to the live blog of the first ODI between Australia and New Zealand in Sydney. There's been a wave of nostalgia and a flurry of #throwback as Cricket Australia and New Zealand Cricket flooded social media with photoshoots of their retro kits-clad players in the build up to the series.

Australia's bright yellow with green streaks and New Zealand's famous teal jersey is indeed a deep-dive into the 1990s as far as visual memory is concerned. It's a decade Australia would love to travel back in time to when they dominated world cricket with some of the most envious ODI line-ups in tow. More so now, when they've hit a rough patch extending to five straight defeats in the format. New Zealand meanwhile, would prefer staying as far away from that period as they can, and you can't really blame them - why be perennial also-rans when you can be recurring finalists?

New Zealand have arrived on the shores of their Trans-Tasman rivals with very little focus or relevance of the impending series. If it being a T20 World Cup year wasn't enough to dilute the importance of a 50-over series, there's a wide spreading pandemic that's putting the entire sport - and many others - in perspective.

Football leagues across Europe are being played behind closed doors, the basketball season in the United States has been suspended after an active player was tested positive, and the IPL governing council too will huddle up on Saturday to figure the best way forward for the league that is scheduled to begin on March 29.

Closer to home, there's also a high-profile Coronavirus case now with Hollywood actor Tom Hanks and his wife testing positive after arriving in Australia.

With the COVID-19 spreading all over the globe and causing a mass hysteria, Cricket Australia announced that the games will be played behind closed doors.