• Australia 167-7; New Zealand 127-8 | Australia win by 40 runs

• Ashleigh Gardner blasts 84 from 45 balls to set strong target

Australia have retained the Rose Bowl with a comfortable 40-run victory in the Twenty20 International against New Zealand at North Sydney Oval.

Led by a blazing 84 from vice-captain Ashleigh Gardner, Australia scored a competitive 167-7 and held New Zealand to 8-127 on Tuesday night, claiming a 2-0 lead in the three-match series with the remaining game on Thursday.

Australia have held the Rose Bowl for more than 26 years, and the trophy is on the line again in March for a three-match one-day series. This will be the first time it has been contested twice in the same season.

Gardner dominated an otherwise stuttering Australian batting performance, facing just 45 balls and hitting 10 fours and four sixes on the compact North Sydney Oval.

Australia then smothered New Zealand. White Ferns captain Melie Kerr top scored with 32 from 38 balls.

Four of Australia’s six bowlers conceded fewer than six an over. The most successful was leg-spinner Georgia Wareham, who claimed 3-18 from her four, while Gardner took 2-17 from three.

Beth Mooney looked good for the second time in the series without pressing on, well caught by a diving Maddy Green at long on for 39 from 28 deliveries, skying a slower ball from Jess Kerr.

The left-hander survived a couple of chances, most tellingly in the third over when Mooney was dropped on the backward square leg boundary for just four.

Ellyse Perry was a major part of Australia’s recovery in the opening game but on Tuesday night she was part of the collapse, holing out to long on for 11 as Australia stumbled to 3-41.

Georgia Voll made her second duck in as many games, skying a hook shot just four balls into the match to be caught and bowled by Bree Illing. In the opening game last Sunday Voll lasted just two balls, falling lbw to the same bowler.

The double failure comes little more than a week after Voll hammered a career best 131 not out in the second of three one-day matches against Bangladesh at Allan Border Field in Brisbane.

Phoebe Litchfield returned to the side after missing the opening match with a minor hip complaint and slotted into her usual place at No.3, but managed just seven. Replacing Tahlia McGrath in the only change to the team, Litchfield mistimed a pull to mid-off.

New Zealand named an unchanged team after giving Australia a fright in the opening game, with the home side scrambling to victory by just two wickets in a tense finish after a dreadful collapse.

There was no such tension on Tuesday night, with New Zealand never mounting a serious challenge.