After a pretty one sided ODI series last week, New Zealand and Bangladesh meet for the first time in the shortest form of the game on Tuesday when they do battle in the first T20 of a three match series in Napier.
This will be the first time both sides will have played a 20 over match since the World T20 last year so it will be interesting to see how they approach this match.
New Zealand
The Kiwis are ranked first in the world in this format of the game which is a big achievement given the quality England and the West Indies showed throughout 2016. One of the reasons why they are so strong in this format of the game is the depth and the strength of their batting and that side of the game tends to work very well.
Sometimes they can be expensive with the ball but they have a lot of medium pacers who can be naggingly accurate and in the middle overs they are hard to get away which gives them the better chance of winning matches. It has been a while since they’ve played this format and form and personnel change so I’m interested to see how they go here.
Bangladesh
Bangladesh bowled quite well for the most part in the ODI series which will give them confidence to take into this match and if the likes of Mustafizur Rahman and Shakib-al-Hasan can deliver the goods that their variations offer then Bangladesh might well be in the matches when they bowl in this series.
Recently the Bangladesh batting line up has looked like it would perform better in 20 over cricket than in 50 over stuff and it will be interesting to see if that rings true here because they were ordinary with the bat in the ODI series and need a marked improvement in that area if they are to get anything here.
Team News
Trent Boult has been rested for this opening match of the series so Lockie Ferguson looks like keeping his place in the side. Corey Anderson returns for this format of the game too.
We may well see a similar Bangladesh side to the one which played in the final ODI of the series. Mushfiqur Rahim is out with the injury which sidelined him in the last two ODIs.
Betting
Given that both sides will be playing their first match in the format for nine months I’m going to go into this series cautiously with just the one bet. That doesn’t come in the match betting but it wouldn’t regardless of the regularity they play this game as Napier is a ground which is so hard to defend.
With that last point in mind I’m going to take over 12.5 sixes in this one. We saw in the ODIs that both sides were prepared to hit big even though at least two of them were high scoring. The boundaries here are always on the short side so I’m expecting the batsmen to clear the ropes enough to bring this line in.
Tips
Back Over 12.5 sixes for a 4/10 stake at 1.83 with William Hill
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