Trans-Tasman Tri-series 2018, NZ vs AUS, 5th T20I: Match Predictions

New Zealand will host the arch-rivals Australia at the Eden Park, Auckland tomorrow in the 5th match of the ongoing Trans-Tasman T20 Tri-series. The Kangaroos won their first three games and thus have already qualified for the final, but the Blackcaps are not quite there despite sitting at the no. 2 position in the points table at this stage.

If New Zealand lose tomorrow (February 16), their last game against England will become a kind of a knockout where a loss by a decent margin will eliminate them from the tournament. But if they win, that will result in England’s elimination as the Poms have lost all three of their games so far.

Pitch Conditions

Eden Park is a small ground with the square as well as the straight boundaries are tiny to say the least and on such grounds, batting first is always a disadvantage because no matter how many runs you put on the board, there will always be a chance for the opposition to chase it down with the dimensions of the boundaries being so small.

Talking about the playing surface, it is likely to be good for batting and it will remain the same right through the 40 overs. So batting second won’t have any cons from that point of view either. So it will be very, very surprising if the captain winning the toss chooses to bat first. Considering the conditions, it’s a bat-second venue.

Playing combination

New Zealand

New Zealand won their last game emphatically and it was Kane Williamson who was the top scorer with 70 odd in just 46 deliveries to guide the hosts to a huge total of 196. There were talks of Williamson not being ideal for the shortest format of the game and somebody else leading New Zealand in the T20s, but the skipper showed that a batsman with class and quality can deliver in any format.

Apart from Williamson, Martin Guptill got a fifty too, while the newcomers Mark Chapman and Tim Seifert chipped in with a couple of impressive cameos. As far as bowling is concerned, Trent Boult and Ish Sodhi were a tad expensive, but they made up for that by grabbing a couple of crucial wickets each. It was a near complete performance by the Blackcaps and they should be going with an unchanged XI.

Probable XI: Kane Williamson (C), Martin Guptill, Colin Munro, Mark Chapman, Colin de Grandhomme, Ross Taylor, Tim Seifert (wk), Mitchell Santner, Tim Southee, Ish Sodhi, Trent Boult

Australia

Given Australia are already in the final, they may like to make a couple of changes. They have preferred playing Ashton Agar over Adam Zampa when they have to play one spinner and to be fair to Agar, he has done alright, but with tomorrow’s game being a dead rubber, Zampa might get a go and he will want to showcase his skills and present a strong case for himself in the final. He hasn’t quite been at the top of his game of late, but he has enough skills and variations in his armoury to make a match winning difference for Australia when on song.

The other change that might be there in the Australian XI is Travis Head replacing Aaron Finch. Head was in good form in the recently finished BBL and if he is slotted in, he will bat at 5 in all probability behind Chris Lynn and Glenn Maxwell.

Probable XI: David Warner (C), D’Arcy Short, Chris Lynn, Glenn Maxwell, Travis Head, Marcus Stoinis, Alex Carey (wk), Billy Stanlake, Kane Richardson, Andrew Tye, Adam Zampa

Here is what we at CricTracker predict for this game:

Probable top performers

Chris Lynn (Australia) | Tim Southee (New Zealand)

Head to Head

Matches – 7 Australia – 5 New Zealand – 1 Tie – 1 (NZ won Super Over)

Timings of the match: 01:50 PM IST

Broadcast Details

TV – Sony Six

Live streaming – SonyLIV

The prediction is for Australia to beat New Zealand in this match.