The second T20 World Cup match on Tuesday is a repeat of the semi-final from a year ago as England take on New Zealand in a massive clash in Group 1 of the Super 12 stage of the tournament in Brisbane.
The stakes are huge here. New Zealand will confirm their semi-final place with a win while England know that if they are beaten in this match then they will be out of the competition barring something extraordinary so there is everything on this one.
England
This has been a frustrating tournament for England so far. They laboured past Afghanistan in their opening match when it was plainly obvious that they needed to try and give their net run rate a boost in a small chase. They then came a cropper against Ireland when the rain came down at the wrong time and then couldn’t even get on the pitch against Australia last time out. It all leaves their hopes hanging by a thread.
England have their backs against the wall here so you would think that at the very least we will see their best performance so far here. They haven’t really offered anything with the bat, which is a huge surprise, but you can’t see them going a run of games without batting well so they will hope that they have saved their best stuff for here. If they have then we know they are in decent order with the ball in the main.
New Zealand
The Kiwis have had no such issues in this tournament. They have won the two matches they have managed to play pretty emphatically and even the washout in between those victories hasn’t left them in a bad position. Such is their net run rate that a win here is highly likely to see them win the group but more importantly it will put them in the final four and mean that they are not sweating about having to win their final match to get through.
There is a question mark over what New Zealand have beaten in this tournament because neither of their opponents played well against them but it might just be that was the case because they played so well themselves. Even when they were in trouble against Sri Lanka last time out they had players who were able to play smart and get them out of a hole and in the end they ran out easy winners. That certainly bodes well for them.
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Team News
England are expected to go into this one unchanged from the team that lost to Ireland in the last match they played. That means that Chris Jordan and David Willey will continue to have to wait for their opportunity.
New Zealand have no reason to switch anything around but if the rain in the early part of the day has impacted conditions they could easily bring Adam Milne in for one of the spinners. That would appear unlikely though.
Betting
I like a couple of bets in this match as well with the first of those being England to hit more than 19.5 boundaries. England have paid the price for not maximising their net run rate in this tournament already and although any win here will take them above Australia into second place in the table, they could still end up being vulnerable to net run rate with England having the tougher of the final matches on paper. This is a ground where the boundaries are accessible though so there is nothing stopping England from getting stuck in here and when you consider that Chris Woakes could be walking in at nine they certainly don’t lack for batting power. England won’t just want to win this match, they’ll want to put a marker down and they can do that by get the ball to the rope on at least 20 occasions.
The other bet I like for this match is Liam Livingstone to be the player of the match. Livingstone could be in his element here because this ground is nothing like big enough to contain him, as we saw in a warm-up match here against Pakistan prior to the tournament beginning, and with this being the second match of the day his spin could be significant as well. Livingstone took 2/22 against New Zealand in the semi-final last year and something similar to that here with a cameo with the bat added to it would give him every chance of being in the mix for the player of the match prize at a decent price.
Tips
Back England – Over 19.5 boundaries for a 3/10 stake at 1.91 with William Hill
Back them here:
Back L.Livingstone Player of the Match for a 1/10 stake at 15.00 with Betfair
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