After a couple of weeks of round robin matches we are down to the final of the Trans-Tasman T20 Tri Series and it will be a battle between the two Australasian rivals as New Zealand take on Australia in Auckland for the title.
These two sides have met twice in the tournament so far with Australia winning on both occasions and they will be looking to complete the hat trick. New Zealand will look to end that run and snatch the title accordingly.
New Zealand
The hosts have made the final which is never a bad thing for the tournament but they have only won one of their four matches which will be a real concern for them in terms of their overall form. They can be cut a little bit of slack with their latest defeat to England on Sunday because they were only ever chasing the qualifying target rather than the overall one.
The big concern for them is that their bowling has gone around the park three times in succession and if you think back to the Pakistan tour of New Zealand, the Kiwi attack went the distance a couple of times there too so they need to tighten up with the ball but that will not be easy with the pressure of the short boundaries here.
Australia
This tournament has been a remarkable turnaround in the fortunes of Australia in this format of the game. For much of the recent history they have barely cared about the format and not taken it very seriously but that has all changed over the last couple of weeks and they have shown just how good they can be and are in it.
Their bowling has been the best of the tournament by a distance and then with the bat they have peeled off the scores they have needed to. Interestingly though they have chased in all of their matches so it will be intriguing to see how they go were they forced to set a total. That would be even more interesting given the small boundaries on this ground.
Team News
New Zealand are expected to be unchanged from the defeat to England last time out. They played their strongest side in that match and although they were beaten the options on the sidelines are unlikely to strengthen them.
Australia produced a world record chase in their previous match in the tournament. Andrew Tye probably has enough credit to stay in the side despite going for 64 in that one so Australia may well be unchanged too.
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Betting
A lot of things point towards Australia in this final. They are unbeaten in the tournament and having known they would be in the final when they landed in New Zealand they have not had to switch their base away from Auckland unless they wanted to. That said this is not a ground to be betting on the outcome without knowing the result of the toss and we got a reminder of that just last week.
With that in mind I will head to the side markets. Usually I would go for the sixes but the line has predicted rocketed up to 19.5. I wouldn’t be in the least bit surprised if that is covered but if it is covered then we are guaranteed a high scoring match and with that in mind I would rather take the slightly safer option of over 370.5 runs. That requires 185 each and both made 55 more than that on this ground last week. If the first innings goes past 200 as it has done on four occasions here then we would only require a normal second innings. I fancy this final will be a run fest so over 370.5 runs makes sense.
Tips
Back Over 370.5 runs for a 4/10 stake at 1.83 with Bet365
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