The Test series between New Zealand and England concludes when the second Test begins in Wellington on Friday, or late on Thursday evening UK time, with the tourists looking to pick up a second series victory over the Kiwis in the space of nine months.
England won the home series between these two 3-0 last summer and New Zealand will be out to avoid another whitewash here. England managed the opening game brilliantly but there is no sign that they will play for a draw so we should be in for an exciting climax.
New Zealand
When New Zealand won the toss in Mount Maunganui they would have thought they would have been immediately ahead of the game. They soon got outsmarted by England though and they went from being in a promising position about to bowl on a green pitch with an evening session under the lights to come to being well behind the game within a day and from that point onwards they were always chasing but couldn’t quite get things in their favour.
They didn’t give in. No New Zealand side does that, but they were never able to bat in the better times to bat or bowl at the right times. There is no need to worry about twilight and floodlights and anything this time around though so this should be a much more even match. New Zealand will need to bat well if they are going to win this match but when you look down their batting order there is certainly no shortage of class there.
England
It is easy to say that the England approach to Test cricket is reckless and everything else that gets thrown at it but not nearly enough credit is given to the thinking behind the way they play. Even in that opening game they knew they only wanted to bat for two sessions on the opening day so that they could level out the potential imbalance from losing the toss by bowling under lights and they delivered their plan to perfection.
When it got to the stage that they were able to balance out the right times to bowl in the second innings as well, England had done something of a masterclass on the Kiwis. This England team always find someone to step up with the bat regardless of the style that it is done in and we’ve said ever since this coach and captain combination took over that the speed they score their runs puts so much more time into the game for their bowlers to get 20 wickets which almost eliminates the draw unless the weather gets involved.
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Team News
New Zealand are expected to make one change to their side with Matt Henry coming into the team in place of Blair Tickner, although there is a feeling that it might be Neil Wagner who sits out however his batting ability probably keeps him in.
England make no secret of the fact that they name their side well in advance in Test cricket these days and it is quite simple for them. They will go in with the same XI that won in Mount Maunganui so there will be no appearance for Olly Stone.
Betting
Everyone expects matches in New Zealand to be lower scoring because when they rock up and see the pitch it looks green to begin with but they all flatten out completely and then end up excellent batting tracks and I certainly expect no different here at the Basin Reserve. The one difference here is there is usually a bit of swing but whether that has an impact when England are batting with the approach they are adopting remains to be seen.
I do expect there to be plenty of runs in this match. Even though the twilight and floodlit periods of play favoured the bowlers massively in that opening game there were still 1,131 runs in the game. There is no periods of play like that so I’m expecting the New Zealand top order to be a lot more productive in this match. England are going to go after the bowling as well so in better batting conditions in terms of timing, I see no reason why a 1055.5 run line can’t be covered here.
Tips
Back Over 1055.5 runs for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with Bet365
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