The T20 series between New Zealand and Pakistan comes to a close on Tuesday when the two sides meet in what would ordinarily be a dead rubber but with a World T20 next year offers up another chance to continue the preparation for that.
The immediacy of the competitive edge on this match disappeared when New Zealand secured the series on Sunday leaving them chasing a whitewash here. Pakistan will look to prove they can hack it in the 20 over sphere so there is enough at stake despite the lack of competitiveness.
New Zealand
It was expected that New Zealand would win the second T20 much more convincingly than they did the first one because they brought a host of big guns back into their side and that is exactly how it played out. There was never really a time in the match in Hamilton where the Kiwis didn’t look like they were going to win and in this format of the game being as dominant as that is quite an achievement it has to be said.
I’ve mentioned a few times on these previews that a squad depth is going to be needed for the remainder of this year and moving into 2021 and clearly that is something New Zealand have in droves. Now it is all about building up a sustained run of form in the 20 over format to take forward with them to hit the World T20 in top form so with that in mind there is likely to be no let up from them over the course of this match.
Pakistan
There was a lot against Pakistan going into the series and we’ve certainly seen those issues and disadvantages come to the fore and impact the first two matches. One of those issues was rust or a lack of a competitive hit out because of the quarantine problems that dogged the early part of the tour. That can be no excuse from here on in though because they have played two matches and should be up to speed by now.
What has not helped them in either of the two matches has been their fielding. To say it has been shocking would be doing it a disservice and if that doesn’t improve in this final game then it is hard to see how the tourists pick up their consolation win that they crave. The other thing that needs to change is the form of their younger batsmen. Hardly any of their youngsters have got runs and on these grounds if you don’t go big with the bat you just won’t win.
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Team News
New Zealand have used their whole squad for the series already so how they will go with this match in terms of personnel remains to be seen. There is a Test match beginning on Saturday though so maybe one or two of the bowlers will be rested.
Pakistan may look to change their opening batters because they just haven’t got anything going in the series so far. They could choose to bring in the experience of Sarfraz Ahmed to help out an inexperienced unit.
Betting
I thought the runs line was a little high for the previous match and I think that is the case here in this final match. The line for this game is 342.5 which even though Napier Park is a pretty small ground and usually a decent batting track it just feels too high. Even though New Zealand chased down Pakistan’s score in the previous game for the loss of just the one wicket it went down to the final over so there wasn’t a whole lot more to come from them.
I think we’ll see the best performance of the three from Pakistan here, certainly with the ball and in the field, although that isn’t saying a lot in terms of the latter. I’m still not convinced that they are going to be excellent with the bat though because this New Zealand attack has been all over them all series. Pakistan have enough with the ball to keep New Zealand honest when they are batting so while I think both teams will go well here the run line looks too high.
Tips
Back Under 342.5 runs for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with Bet365
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