Trans-Tasman Tri-Series 2018, NZ vs ENG, 4th T20I: Match Predictions

The Black Caps don’t have anything in their points’ tally either, but they are in a slightly better position as that they have three games in hand in comparison to England’s two.

Published - 12 Feb 2018, 19:19 IST | Updated - 12 Feb 2018, 19:19 IST

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After absolutely decimating Australia in the ODI series, England are finding it a little difficult in T20 cricket all of a sudden as they have suffered two back to back losses and are in a must-win situation now ahead of their third game in the Trans-Tasman Tri-Series against the Black Caps. A loss will put them out of contention for the final.

The Black Caps don’t have anything in their points’ tally either, but they are in a slightly better position as that they have three games in hand in comparison to England’s two. However, they won’t take it easy because of that and will surely come firing on all cylinders.

New Zealand might have lost a T20 series against Pakistan recently, but they have had a pretty dominant record at home in all formats of the game in the recent years and they are the ones who will start favourites tomorrow.

Probable nature of the pitch

The Westpac Stadium’s pitch will be good for batting. There will be a little bit of assistance for the fast bowlers early on, but it should be a belter thereafter and scores in excess of 200 will be on the cards considering it’s not the biggest ground in the world.

Because of it being a T20, the nature of the pitch is not likely to change drastically during the course of the game. So chasing will be the order of the day as has been the norm in the shortest format of the game around the world. In good batting conditions, the pursuit of a target gives you that bit of an extra advantage as you are aware of the ask and you have a perfect idea how to go about pacing the innings.

Until and unless the pitch is on the drier side, which generally doesn’t happen to be the case in Wellington, the captain winning the toss, in all likelihood, will opt to bowl first.

Playing Combination

England

England’s regular captain Eoin Morgan is not a certainty for the game and if he is not available, Jos Buttler will have to discharge the captaincy duties again and Sam Billings will be able to hold his place in the XI. Sam Curran is surely a candidate to replace Billings as he is handy with the bat as well along with his skills with the ball, but the fact that Billings brings some innovative stroke play on the table and is capable of making match winning difference in the latter part of the innings, the English think tank may just persist with the right-hander for one more game and if that’s the case, England should be going with an unchanged XI.

Predicted XI: Jason Roy, Alex Hales, Dawid Malan, James Vince, Jos Buttler (C & wk), Sam Billings, David Willey, Chris Jordan, Liam Dawson, Adil Rashid, Tom Curran

New Zealand

New Zealand have a dilemma with Ross Taylor. There is a school of thought that both Taylor and the captain Kane Williamson can’t be in the XI together as they play at the same pace and with their presence at no. 3 and no. 5, the innings sometimes doesn’t get the impetus it needs in the middle overs. The Black Caps have an aggressive batsman sitting on the bench in the form of Anaru Kitchen and he will bat at 5 if the think tank decides to leave Taylor out.

They might also be tempted to get the right-arm fast bowler Seth Rance in for his capability of swinging the ball and also bowling good changeups in the death, but for that they will have to drop either Ish Sodhi or one of their two premier quicks Trent Boult and Tim Southee which will be an extremely tough call considering it’s a crunch game of the series. The chances are pretty slim that the hosts will make any change in the bowling department.

Predicted XI: Martin Guptill, Colin Munro, Kane Williamson (C), Tom Bruce, Anaru Kitchen, Tom Blundell (wk), Colin de Grandhomme, Mitchell Santner, Tim Southee, Ish Sodhi, Trent Boult