New Zealand and India continue their T20 series in Wellington on Friday and although the tourists secured the series with a couple of matches to play earlier in the week, with a World T20 later in the year there is a lot to play for still.
New Zealand will consider themselves unlucky to be 3-0 down in the series having been very competitive in two of the three matches, and will be determined to showcase their credentials here. It will be business as usual for India.
New Zealand
The Kiwis must be ruing ever getting involved in super overs. They lost their T20 series to England earlier this winter in one and this series disappear through that medium as well so they could be forgiven for thinking they are cursed or something. The beauty for them is though that they have a couple more matches to highlight their talents and to build some confidence as we meander towards the World T20.
If they are to become a factor in that tournament then they are going to need to improve immeasurably with the ball, although in their defence they won’t be playing on tiny grounds like Eden Park and Seddon Park down in Australia, and they won’t be missing two huge components of their bowling attack either they hope. If there is a positive it is that they have shown that they can demolish India with the bat.
India
Whoever wins the World T20 later in the year will have to chase a big total at some point and hold their nerve at other times so it is to their credit that they have done both in the space of three matches on this tour so far. Now that they have the series won, they can get to work on finding the best combinations to take down to Australia with them, so they are already in a very good position indeed.
You would think there would be quite a bit of competition within the bowling ranks for India over the next few months. It is unlikely they are going to play a plethora of spinners in Australia so the battle for spin roles will be intriguing. The one thing they are going to need in that tournament is a finisher so that is another battle that will take shape in the upcoming outings. The fact everyone coming in will want to do well is no bad thing for India.
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Team News
New Zealand will definitely make one change to their side for this match as Colin de Grandhomme was only selected for the first three games. He hasn’t had a great time of it anyway. Daryl Mitchell will be his replacement.
India captain Virat Kohli has hinted that his team will change now the series is won so we can expect Navdeep Saini to be given a chance in these conditions while Kuldeep Yadav could be given the opportunity to showcase his credentials as well.
Betting
Big hitting and a lot of boundaries have been the order of the day so far in this series and I’m not expecting nothing to change here at the ‘Cake Tin’. This isn’t quite Eden Park in terms of a small ground but it isn’t a whole lot bigger and the dynamic is still the same. Go hard and keep on going is the way to play this and we’ve got two batting line ups who are well used to that based on the series so far.
You’ve got to think there will be a weakening of the Indian attack in this match which should mean it is even easier for the Kiwi batsmen to find the ropes, although in fairness they haven’t had too many problems in that regard. India are always full of boundaries so even at 8/11 I think there is plenty of mileage on the over 40.5 boundaries here with another high scoring match expected much like what we’ve seen so far.
Tips
Back Over 40.5 boundaries for a 5/10 stake at 1.73 with William Hill
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