The opening ODI between New Zealand and England takes place in the early hours of Sunday UK time. With five matches between the two over the next couple of weeks we should get treated to some really exciting cricket beginning with this one.
This opening match comes from Hamilton and although there are four more games to come both sides will be eager to get off to a winning start just to put a little pressure on the other heading deeper into the series.
New Zealand
The home side go into this match off the back of a run which has seen them win all eight ODIs they have played at home this summer. They took care of three matches against the West Indies and then won all five against a disappointing Pakistan outfit. They go into this series after losing in the final of the T20s but when it comes to 50 overs they look the real deal.
One of the reasons for that is the bowling attack that gives nothing away and maintains pressure throughout the 50 overs but also they don’t give matches away with the bat either. They have talented players who can blast away when things are going well but also those technically solid enough to rebuild when they get into trouble.
England
New Zealand aren’t the only side who go into this series in good form in 50 overs. England arrive in New Zealand off the back of a 4-1 win over Australia where there were more positives than just the score itself. England have been guilty of having to blast sides away with the bat but they never really did that in Australia. Importantly they were able to defend scores.
That will bode well for them here although this is a completely different test. Australia looked a bit clueless in that series but New Zealand know what they are doing and the prospect of defending scores on tiny grounds is much different to knowing how hard finding the boundaries on big grounds in Australia is.
Team News
New Zealand will make a few changes to the side which we saw in the T20s. Todd Astle is said to be doubtful though so Ish Sodhi could get a chance. Henry Nicholls will come into the middle order while Tom Latham will have the gloves.
England will also line up differently to the T20 series. Joe Root and Ben Stokes are in the squad for this series and it appears both will play the first game. Amazingly it looks like England will go with Jonny Bairstow to open rather than Alex Hales.
Seddon Park
There have been 32 previous ODIs on this ground and to be fair New Zealand have a decent record here. They have won 18 of the 27 matches they have played with seven defeats and a couple of no results. England have played two games here and lost them both.
This is generally a good batting track and with extremely short boundaries straight the scoring should in theory be high although as with all ODI wickets in New Zealand sides will need to avoid losing batches of wickets to the new ball.
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Betting
I’ll go with three in this opening match of the series. The first of those is England to hit the most sixes. England have a very aggressive philosophy in this format of the game whereas it is really only the openers and one or two way down the order who are natural six hitters. Bairstow and maybe Root aside, England are littered with them and that aggressive intent combined with the natural hitting ability I’ll take England for the most sixes.
Jonny Bairstow has a performance line of 42.5 for this match which looks very high when you think he is going to open the batting against arguably the best new ball attack in the world. My feelings on him opening for England is perfectly clear but with him fielding predominantly in the deep catches can’t be relied upon so he is going to have to score 43 with the bat to bust the under here. In 11 innings as an opener in ODIs he has made 43 or more five times but two of those five were 43 and 44 exactly. The under feels like the play.
Tom Latham doesn’t always get the recognition he deserves in ODI cricket but with England potentially having wickets in their arsenal he will need to deliver the goods for the Kiwis in this series if they are to travel well. He will bat at number five which is not a bad spot to be especially as we saw in India that he can play spin well. We might not get a double figure price on him very often in this series so I’ll take the chance to get on here.
Tips
WON – Back England Most 6s for a 4/10 stake at 2.05 with LeoVegas
Back them here:
Back T.Latham Top New Zealand Batsman for a 1/10 stake at 11.00 with Betfair
Back him here:
WON – Back J.Bairstow’s Performance – Under 42.5pts for a 4/10 stake at 1.83 with Bet365
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