The penultimate match of the league phase of the Trans-Tasman T20 Tri Series takes place on Friday when New Zealand meet Australia. The home side will hope the two will meet again in the final next week and if they win here that is exactly what will happen.
Australia are already into the final. If they win here then England will still have a chance of qualifying to face them next week. Defeat and the final will be set in stone.
New Zealand
After a disappointing batting effort in Australia to back up a couple of poor ones against Pakistan, New Zealand will have been delighted to put up a solid effort in Wellington earlier in the week in what was a dominant performance against England. The scoreline made it look like a tight match but in truth it was anything but that.
If there is a concern for New Zealand from that match and indeed previous ones that they have played it will come in the form of their bowling which still conceded 180+ and were on course to do similar in the match in Australia had there been enough runs for them to chase. They could do with tightening up at some point.
Australia
You have to give it to Australia. Apart from the first 10 overs of each innings in their second match they have dominated this series and thoroughly deserve the position they are in which sees them in the final with a match to spare. They need to maintain the quality they have had with the ball and it will be interesting to see if the pressure of the short boundaries fazes them or not.
The one thing that we do know is that the boundaries are not big enough for the Australian batsmen and if they get the formula to do so they could go very big in this match especially as they are already through to the final and can just play with freedom in this one. That makes them a potentially dangerous outfit.
Team News
After such a dominating performance in the previous match it is unlikely for New Zealand to make many changes to their side. They have Ben Wheeler on the sidelines but unless Ish Sodhi getting smacked around concerns them Wheeler is unlikely to play.
Australia don’t need to make changes but given that they are in the final whatever happens here we could see them make one or two changes to keep everyone involved.
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Betting
A New Zealand win here will send them into the final but I’m just not sure I can trust a side to defend on this ground. I know we’ve seen some high profile cases of scores being defended here but I still wouldn’t like to have my money on a side who are having to protect these tiny boundaries.
With that in mind I’m heading for the sixes market. We’ve just seen New Zealand smack a load of them against England while Australia have a whole heap of power in their batting line up. We all know the straight boundaries here are ridiculously short so the sixes should really flow. I’ll go with over 13.5 here.
Tips
WON – Back Over 14 or more sixes for a 5/10 stake at 1.73 with Bet365
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