Pakistan looking to bounce back from underwhelming Champions Trophy.
Pakistan and New Zealand have seen a lot of each other in white ball cricket in recent times – they played each other in a tri-series along with South Africa where they met in the final as well as pool play. They were also in the same group at the Champions Trophy. All that was 50-over fare, now they face each other in the shortest form of the game.
All the previous encounters mentioned above were in Pakistan, now they have moved to New Zealand, where Sunday’s opening game of the five match T20I series will be played in Christchurch.
New Zealand head into the series as the fifth ranked T20I side in the world while Pakistan are ranked seventh. The visitors recent form in the T20I format has been poor, although admittedly all their recent action has been away from home – they are without a win in their last four games – their last T20I victory against Zimbabwe in December.
Both teams will be without several key players who are either being rested or who are preparing to play in the IPL. Amongst others the Kiwis will be without Devon Conway, Rachin Ravindra, Glenn Phillips, Mitchell Santner and Lockie Ferguson while for Pakistan there is no Babar Azam or Mohammad Rizwan.
New Zealand vs Pakistan | First T20I | Sunday 16 March | Hagley Oval, Christchurch | 03:15am
Venue:
Sunday’s game will be played at Christchurch’s Hagley Oval, a location where Pakistan have a very good record. They have played seven T20I there and won five of them.
Of the seven games Pakistan have played at Hagley Oval, they have chased on three occasions and never lost when batting second.
The par score batting first at Hagley Oval is a modest 159 runs.
In total Hagley Oval has played host to 11 T20Is. Of those games the side chasing has won seven times and the side batting first four.
Weather:
It looks like the game will go ahead without any interruptions. Sunday’s forecast is for sunshine and mild weather with no rain predicted and a light breeze.
Recent form (most recent game first):
New Zealand: L, W, W, W, L.
Pakistan: A, L, L, L, W.
Key player:
New Zealand: Michael Bracewell
Set to lead the side, Bracewell comes into the series on the back of a very good ICC Champions Trophy, where he performed well with both bat and ball. He averages 18.28 with the ball and 18.5 with the bat with strike-rates of 18.28 and 129.50 respectively. He is a smart cricketer and although relatively inexperienced in the format with just 27 T20I to his credit he is a season international with a very good record in T20 franchise cricket. In the absence of so many of the usual stars, this could just be his moment to shine.
Pakistan: Shaheen Shah Afridi
He is Pakistan’s highest ranked bowler in the format and a proven wicket-taker in the format. He has taken 100 wickets in T20I cricket at an average of 21.24 with an outstanding strike-rate of 16.3. Afridi typically bowls at both the start and end of the innings, sometimes with an over reserved for the middle period of the game as well. He prides himself on his ability to take wickets in each spell and he should be a threat at the venue which has traditionally been a good hunting ground for left-arm quicks.
Verdict: Pakistan
New Zealand are missing a host of key performers and while Pakistan are without a few stars of their own, their strength should be less affected by the absences. Pakistan have an excellent record at Hagley Oval and will be hungry to bounce back from an underwhelming performance in the Champions Trophy. They have a lot to prove.
