Thornton's seven routs Kiwis to claim best Aus A figures

An incredible seven wickets by Henry Thornton on Australia A debut has spurred the Aussies to a comfortable series-clinching win over their New Zealand counterparts with one match to play.

A late inclusion into the Australia A squad following foot soreness to Liam Hatcher, Thornton immediately made his presence felt when thrown the ball in the seventh over of the New Zealand A chase.

By the end of his first over he had three wickets, ripping through the Kiwi top order to dramatically swing the momentum of the match after they had raced along at almost seven runs an over for the six in pursuit of Australia's 243 all out.

By the fourth delivery of his ninth over Thornton had all seven New Zealand wickets to fall to the point, single-handedly orchestrating a stunning collapse of 7-64 after Australia had let the visitors back in the match throughout the second half of their batting innings.

Watched from the stands by chief national selector George Bailey, the South Australian quick finished with the remarkable figures of 7-39 from his 10 overs, going past the late Andrew Symonds' 6-14 against India A in Los Angeles in 1999 as the best List A figures recorded for Australia A.

It's the second time Thornton has helped engineer a remarkable batting collapse, taking 5-3 for the Adelaide Strikers when they rolled the Sydney Thunder for a world-record lowest men's T20 score of 15 all out in last season's KFC BBL.

It was Thornton's first five-wicket haul in List A cricket and he said following the match he was "pretty speechless" to be able to do it against an international opposition.

"I thought bowling a really good length and bowling in a really good area at speed, I wanted to make sure if I was bowling, I was bowling quick and I wanted the pitch to do the work," he said.

"If you look at my dismissals there was a couple of nicks, but there was a whole range.

"I got a bumper caught (at deep square leg) and a catch at point, so I just wanted to make sure my pace was really good and I didn't get greedy.

"I wanted to just keep smashing length and hope that it would open up for me and it turned out tonight it came off.

"I was just honestly stoked to get the call up for the last two games up here and it's been a great couple of days."

Twice the right-armer was on a hat-trick; with the first attempt (which came in the following over) he delivered a bouncer that Nick Kelly comfortably ducked under, and with the second he sent the ball down the leg side out of wicketkeeper Josh Philippe's reach for five wides.

"I had absolutely no idea it was a hat-trick ball," Thornton said of the first attempt.

"We were going to a plan, we put the short leg in, and you do what the skipper asks.

"But I really wanted to just make sure that whatever I was doing, I was going to have a real good crack at it.

"It's a great start (to the season). I feel like I'm in a really good place, I've worked a lot on my game over the offseason and it's great to get the rewards."

After Thornton completed his 10 overs, spinners Ashton Turner (2-14) and Matthew Kuhnemann (1-28) cleaned up the New Zealand tail to record a thumping 108-run win that sees Australia A take an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match 50-over series.

It had looked like the Aussies were on target to post a score well over 300 earlier in the day after opener Ben McDermott smashed six sixes in his 59-ball 70.

Australia's top four of Matt Short (22 off 26), McDermott, Matthew Renshaw (43 off 54) and Philippe (35 off 25) all got going as the hosts raced to 2-158 at the halfway point of the innings after being sent in.

But from there the wickets fell at regular intervals as Australia A lost 7-73 to be all out in the 45th over.

Seamer Will O'Rourke was the pick of the Kiwi bowlers with 4-29 from his 9.1 overs, which included the wickets of Short, Renshaw and Philippe.

The two sides return to Brisbane's Allan Border Field for the third one-day match and final fixture of New Zealand A's tour on Friday.

Australia A v New Zealand A series

First four-day match: NZ A won by 225 runs

Second four-day match: NZ A won by 68 runs

Australia A four-day squad: Wes Agar, Cameron Bancroft, Jordan Buckingham, Ben Dwarshuis, Caleb Jewell, Campbell Kellaway, Matthew Kelly, Matthew Kuhnemann, Nathan McAndrew, Nathan McSweeney, Joel Paris, Jimmy Peirson, Mitch Perry, Josh Philippe, Mark Steketee, Mitchell Swepson, Tim Ward

First one-dayer: Aus A won by five wickets

Second one-dayer: Aus A won by 108 runs

Third one-dayer: September 15, Allan Border Field

Australia A one-day squad: Will Sutherland (c), Ollie Davies, Liam Hatcher, Caleb Jewell, Matt Kuhnemann, Ben McDermott, Josh Philippe, Matt Renshaw, Tom Rogers, Gurinder Sandhu, Matt Short, Mark Steketee, Ashton Turner

New Zealand A squad (both formats): Muhammad Abbas, Adi Ashok, Tom Bruce (c), Leo Carter, Josh Clarkson, Henry Cooper, Jacob Duffy, Cam Fletcher, Dean Foxcroft, Mitch Hay, Scott Kuggeleijn, Will O'Rourke, Ajaz Patel, Michael Rae, Brett Randell, Tim Seifert, Sean Solia