England begin a packed winter of cricket action in the early hours of Friday morning UK time, when they take on New Zealand in the first of five T20 matches over the course of the next couple of weeks as both teams begin their preparation for the World T20 next year.
It has become a theme of 2019 that England and New Zealand battle it out on the world stage and while this match is not as big as the ICC World Cup final or the Rugby World Cup semi-final, the fact England won both should get the revenge juices of the Kiwis flowing.
New Zealand
The Kiwis can be an underrated commodity at this level but that isn’t to say they are the perfect article by any means. They showed their worth in Sri Lanka recently when they came away from there with a 2-1 series win and if they can come through this series on top then they are entitled to be serious dangers in Australia next year. Defeat will leave them with more questions than answers which may not be ideal.
New Zealand tend to rely on their all-rounders for this format, but we’ve seen in leagues around the world that you need clean hitters if you are going to be successful and it will be interesting to see if New Zealand have enough of them. One thing they do not lack is quality bowlers and that should always make the Kiwis competitive but on these tiny grounds in this part of the world they’ll need to clear the ropes.
England
Having finished runners up in the last World Cup in this format, England will be looking to go one better next year. They have a powerful batting line up and as we are going to see in this series they have plenty of back up to their first choice players, but the area that has let them down in this format in recent times has been their bowling. They have been unable to stem the flow of runs against them and that is an issue which needs to be addressed in the next 12 months.
They might get away with that a little in this series because on these grounds bowlers are going to go round the park anyway. It is clearly something they have recognised as they have named a number of uncapped bowlers in their squad to play in the five matches, two of which are going to get their debut here. If England can find the right combinations with the ball they are going to be tough to stop next year.
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Team News
New Zealand are without captain Kane Williamson and fast bowler Trent Boult for this match. Lockie Ferguson has recovered from injury to take his place in the side with Tim Seifert expected to bat at three. Tim Southee will captain the team.
England captain Eoin Morgan hasn’t announced his side but he has confirmed that Dawid Malan will open with Jonny Bairstow and that Sam Curran and Pat Brown will make their international debuts. Lewis Gregory could do likewise after injury has put Joe Denly out of this match. Tom Banton and Matt Parkinson may have to wait their turn.
Betting
Hagley Oval in Christchurch is one of the bigger grounds in New Zealand but the recent evidence is that it is still a batting paradise. There was a recent four day match here which was rain affected but there were four centuries and a 96 in it so the batsmen are likely to dominate even on a bigger outfield. That might curtail the sixes a little but I still expect the boundaries to flow.
I say that because there is a lot of power in the batting line ups of both sides and in truth both attacks have the potential to go round the park as a result. England just went for plenty in the latest of their two warm up matches but their batting looks powerful and with Adil Rashid potentially batting at 10 they bat deep. I’m expecting this entire series to be high scoring and so over 40.5 boundaries can land as a result.
Tips
Back Over 40.5 boundaries for a 4/10 stake at 2.00 with William Hill
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