After being thoroughly outplayed in the ODI matches, Bangladesh will go in search of a change of luck when they take on New Zealand in the first T20 game of the three that will be played. Seddon Park in Hamilton will have all the action.
New Zealand cruised to a 3-0 success in the ODI series and having seen off West Indies, Pakistan and Australia in T20 play this summer they will be looking to add Bangladesh to that list. There is a World T20 in seven months so both sides will be eager to build confidence ahead of that.
New Zealand
It is hard to think of a period where New Zealand have played more T20 cricket than the last few months. Not only have they won three international series but most of their players were involved in the domestic competition which had an added profile this season as well. With the IPL to come for a lot of their squad too, when they get to the World T20 later in the year the Kiwis stars are certainly not going to be unprepared.
We are going to need to see the depth of New Zealand cricket if they are going to win this match and the series though as they have decided to give their senior players a rest ahead of them joining up with IPL franchises over the coming weeks. It will be interesting to see what they have with the ball in particular. You tend to find that all international sides have plenty of depth in their batting in this age of franchise competitions.
Bangladesh
Bangladesh will hope to be a lot more competitive in this series than they were in the ODIs and if that is to happen then they need to show more confidence and intent with the bat. Usually the latter brings about the former so it might be that this switch in format has come at a good time for them. We’ve seen in the franchise competitions around the world that they have an attack which can keep opposition in check at the key times.
Bangladesh are without some key batsmen themselves in this series so they too will need to display that they have the depth that is required in what is increasingly becoming a squad game at this level. Given the struggles of their batsmen in the ODI series bringing some fresh blood into the line up might not necessarily be a bad thing, especially if they come with the required intent on what is likely to be a decent wicket for batting.
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Team News
New Zealand have chosen to give Kane Williamson, Trent Boult, Jimmy Neesham, Kyle Jamieson and Mitchell Santner the series off so the likes of Adam Milne, Mark Chapman, Finn Henry and Todd Astle will get a chance to impress.
There is no Tamim Iqbal for Bangladesh for this series so Mohammad Naim might be the one to come in for him at the top of the order. Mohammad Saifuddin could well be included to in order to add further depth to the batting.
Betting
We didn’t see much in the way of high scoring in the ODIs with the exception of the first innings in the last game when New Zealand batted first. A lot of that was down to the lack of intent or quality or whatever you’d like to call it of the Bangladeshi batsmen but in this format they can’t not play with intent and look for the boundaries so I think we’ll see a higher scoring game in terms of run rates and things like that.
Not only will the format assist that but also the fact that New Zealand’s trickiest three bowlers to score off won’t be featuring here either and although the players coming in are decent enough there is no doubt they are a level below the likes of Boult and Santner. We know New Zealand can get after this Bangladesh attack and if anything their batting in this match looks even more powerful with the likes of Glenn Phillips and Finn Allen coming into it so I like the idea of there being more than 325.5 runs in this one.
Tips
WON – Back Over 325.5 runs for a 3/10 stake at 2.00 with Bet365
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