West Indies finish their tour of New Zealand with three T20 internationals, the first of which comes from Nelson on Friday. The Test matches and the ODIs between these two were largely uncompetitive affairs but with West Indies the world champions in this these three games should be much more keenly fought.
New Zealand
I don’t think it is harsh to say that New Zealand have much bigger fish to fry this summer but if they can knock off West Indies in this format it will say a lot about them given that they have been rotating their personnel to ensure everyone gets a rest ahead of what is to come. This will probably be their toughest test of the summer so far.
We’ve seen in the past that New Zealand like to go down the route of stocking up with all-rounders in this format of the game and it will be interesting to see if they continue with that policy. The positive for them is that the domestic T20 competition is currently taking place so whoever they bring in will be acclimatised to this format.
West Indies
We’ve seen in recent T20 series that West Indies are getting many more of their senior players back and one or two are accompanying them in this series too which should automatically make them a more competitive outfit. It will be interesting to see if Carlos Brathwaite can inspire a performance out of this side.
We know the West Indies game in this format. They provide power with the bat, and plenty of it and then they go with variety with the ball with a couple of spinners who give nothing away getting sides behind the rate to allow the quicks to change their pace and show off all their skills. They have a formula in this game which works for them.
Team News
New Zealand remain without Kane Williamson and Colin de Grandhomme for this series and there is no Trent Boult either but Martin Guptill does return from injury for this. Glenn Phillips is the leading scorer in the domestic tournament and he is set to feature here.
West Indies were hoping to have Marlon Samuels, Kieron Pollard and Sunil Narine in their ranks for this series but Samuels was ruled out injured and the latter two have pulled out for personal reasons.
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Betting
I expect West Indies to be more competitive in this series and as such they might be considered a bit of value in this match but I would like to see how both sides line up before I get involved in match betting especially on these New Zealand grounds which are so hard to defend due to their size.
With the size of the ground in mind I’m going to take the sixes here. There has been one match on this ground in the Super Smash and it yielded well over 400 runs and 23 sixes in total so we know there are going to be runs scored here. Both sides are packed with six hitters and there is no mystery in either attack. The sixes should really flow in this one.
Tips
Back Over 12.5 sixes for a 4/10 stake at 1.83 with Paddy Power
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