The ODI series between England and New Zealand continues on Sunday when the two sides head to Southampton for the second match of the scheduled four and one in which the tourists can guarantee a share of the spoils should they win.
England know if they don’t win this match they will be in the reverse position to the T20 matches and be two down with two to play so really they have to win here to maintain a hope of landing these ODIs ahead of the World Cup next month.
England
While the overall point of this series is to fine tune plans for the World Cup and try out combinations and see which work and which do not but even then they would have been concerned about how that opening match played out. We didn’t see the swashbuckling batting that we usually see from this England side, and are going to need to see from it if they are going to have any chance of winning the World Cup, even allowing for the pitch playing the odd trick.
The bigger concern and something that needs sorting ahead of the World Cup was the bowling effort. To be fair, you look at this England attack on paper and if the ball doesn’t swing you do worry for them. Over the next three matches they need to come up with a bowling combination that is going to work else their batting is going to be under a lot of pressure in the World Cup, and as good and deep as their batting is, any batting unit can get found out at the wrong time.
New Zealand
On the flip side, New Zealand will be delighted with how they went in the opening game and if they can repeat that performance over the next couple of months then they could easily be right in the mix when it comes to the business end of the World Cup. To beat England in the fashion they did was impressive but when you consider they have some big players to come into their side from the XI which won in Cardiff, it was even more eye catching.
I think we knew New Zealand would more than hold their own when it came to the bowling part of the game. They have plenty of bowling options, the majority of whom are of sufficient quality, but if there was a question mark over this team then it comes in the batting department, or at least that was the thought process but they showed in that opening game that isn’t the case at all. They cruised to a meaningful chase with the likes of Glenn Phillips still in the hutch.
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Team News
It would appear that Jason Roy was going to open the batting for England in the opener until he suffered a back spasm on the morning of the match. Assuming that has eased we can expect him to come into the side. England will hope to have Mark Wood available too.
New Zealand will be without Adam Milne for the remainder of the series. Ben Lister has been called into the squad but unless the Kiwis are going to rotate throughout the four matches then he might be carrying the drinks for this one.
Betting
We saw a high scoring match in the opening game of the series and I don’t foresee any different here. We probably knew that the batting was very much the strength of the England game but that was ruthlessly apparent in the first game and there isn’t a great deal England can do to change that. They can bring Mark Wood into the team but he hasn’t bowled since The Ashes so he might be a little on the rusty side.
We actually saw both teams bat well in Cardiff and with the Ageas Bowl wicket being good for batting and the weather recently ensuring we are going to have a lightning fast outfield, I expect the runs to continue to flow in this match. England will only get better with the bat with the likes of Jason Roy, Jonny Bairstow and Moeen Ali waiting in the wings while New Zealand got home in the last game without Glenn Phillips or Tom Latham getting to the crease. I like over 567.5 runs in this one.
Tips
Back Over 567.5 runs for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with Bet365
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