The second ODI between New Zealand and Pakistan takes place on Tuesday with the match beginning in the late hours of Monday evening for those of us in the UK. Both sides will go into the contest in Nelson looking for a big win.
New Zealand drew first blood in the series over the weekend and could go two up with three to play if they can find another win here. Pakistan will be all out to level the series to try and maintain a realistic chance of winning it.
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New Zealand
Kane Williamson will have been delighted on two counts after his side’s win at the Basin Reserve. Firstly he will be delighted with the performance of his team and secondly his own form will have pleased him immensely too. His side were strong with the bat and right from the first over they were on top with the ball.
The Kiwis went into the contest in good form but with some doubts over the sides they have beaten this summer but they showed just how good they are in that first game win. If they can back that up here and go 2-0 ahead they will be in a position to win the series early and maybe take the chance to rest some players with plenty more cricket to come.
Pakistan
The first match was something of a surprise as far as Pakistan were concerned. I say that because they have not lost many matches over the 50 over format in recent times so to see them on the back foot for near enough the entire match was something different. To see their bowling attack struggle was very much unaccustomed.
I wouldn’t think Pakistan will panic too much after one defeat. If anything the game may have acted as a reminder that there is still work to be done and that they can sometimes be too reliant on their senior players, the majority of whom did not perform at the Basin. If they can show the form they have been doing then Pakistan can still level the series.
Team News
New Zealand are expected to go in with the same side after controlling the first game of the series. There might be time for Glenn Phillips later in the series but not just yet.
Pakistan may well be tempted to stick with an unchanged team too despite losing in Wellington. That was the best line up they have to offer and they’ve been in good form so can be excused an off day.
Saxton Oval
This will be the tenth time an ODI has been held at this Nelson venue. New Zealand have played six matches here with four wins a defeat and a no result while Pakistan will be tasting an ODI here for the first time but they did play their warm up match for the series on this ground.
There have been scores over 300 on this ground and Pakistan made another when preparing for this series. The wicket here is a little on the lower side which might play into the hands of the tourists.
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Betting
I was looking forward to the first ODI of the series and I’m looking forward to this one too because I am intrigued to see how Pakistan react to their first defeat in a while. Sadly there is some rain in the forecast which makes betting on the match a little difficult so I will stick with just a player performance for this one.
Fakhar Zaman is in excellent form with the bat on this tour but I was interested to see that he bowled in the first ODI too. He bowled in the warm up match but sometimes you don’t know how seriously those are taken but there seems to be a genuine move for Fakhar to take some of the workload with the ball that Mohammad Hafeez would normally do. Not only did Fakhar bowl in the first ODI but he took a wicket in a performance which saw him total 102pts which had the potential to increase had the rain not arrived. His line here is 34.5 and I fancy he’ll cover that over the course of the day.
Tips
VOID – Back F.Zaman’s Performance – Over 34.5pts for a 4/10 stake at 1.83 with Bet365
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