England edged New Zealand out in a five match ODI series earlier in the month and they finish their tour of the country with a two match Test series. It includes the first day-night Test to be held in New Zealand to add to the profile of the series and acts as a decent way to take us into the domestic cricket to follow.
Schedule
1st Test: 22-26 Mar at Auckand (day-night)
2nd Test: 30 Mar – Apr 3 at Christchurch
New Zealand
The home side will go into the series looking to round off what has been a pretty good summer for them. This is the second series of the summer after they took care of the West Indies fairly comfortably prior to Christmas to continue their excellent home form in this format of the game. They have only lost one series at home since 2012 which is an amazing record.
One of the reasons for that has been their exceptional seam attack which regularly threatens opposing batsmen and who know how to bowl in these conditions. The other reason for it has been clever, aggressive and tactically astute captaincy combined with a side who can play well under pressure. It makes them hard to beat.
England
On the flip side of that England arrive in this series up and down more than a yoyo and off the back of a crushing beating in The Ashes when Australia brushed them aside 4-0. Generally this England side have really struggled on their travels in recent times with no secret being made of the fact they are focusing on one day cricket at the present time.
The issues that England had heading into The Ashes remain intact. Two spots in their top five are up for grabs although to be fair Dawid Malan should have tied one of them down. They lack a quality spinner and at times their fourth seamer has been exposed too so there is a lot for England to need to improve on to take this series.
Head to Head
These two sides have met in 35 previous Test series and it will no doubt anger New Zealand to know they have won just three of them. Nine of them have been drawn with England coming out on top in 23 of those series. Two of the three New Zealand have won have been in England so they really don’t scrub up well in their home conditions against the English.
England’s dominance is highlighted in the match record. The two nations have played 101 Test matches throughout the years and New Zealand have won just nine of them which is quite frankly a pathetic record. England have 48 wins and there have been 44 draws. History is very much with England here.
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Betting
I’m not really one for betting in two match series because one big innings with bat or ball severely skews everything so I’m not going to get involved in any of the player markets and watch someone blow it away in one dig. There is one piece of value I can’t ignore though.
That comes in the form of the 0-0 correct score which at 12/1 I think is worth taking a chance on. I say that because the first Test is meant to be rain affected for long periods and there is no guarantee of a winner at Christchurch either, especially if more rain hits, which at this time of year can’t be ruled out. 24 of the 49 Tests at Auckland have been drawn while this will be the first March Test at Hagley. I think 0-0 is a runner and at the price we can hedge away at the very least if the rain in the first game rules out a result.
Tips
Back 0-0 Series Correct Score for a 1/10 stake at 13.00 with Bet365
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