Australia will start its quest for the elusive ICC World Twenty20 crown when it takes on New Zealand on Friday (March 18) at the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association Stadium in Dharamsala.
Australia
is No. 1 in the ICC Test rankings and won a record fifth World Cup
title in the 50-over format last year but is yet to conquer the World
T20. It has made the final only once, in 2010 when it lost to England.
New Zealand is on a high after stunning India in the opening game of the Super 10 stage on Tuesday in Nagpur, but Steven Smith's side will take confidence from the fact that it defeated New Zealand in the final of the 50-over ICC World Cup 2015.
More
significantly, Australia has a massive advantage over New Zealand in
the head-to-head stats in the 20-over format, having won four of the
five matches the two sides have played. Australia's only loss, in 2010,
came in a Super Over.
Shane Watson, however,
stressed that there was no guarantee of another win, especially after
New Zealand's 47-run win over India.
"We are going
to have to play very well because they are going to be very confident
leading into this game," Watson told reporters in Dharamsala on the eve
of the match.
Australia has been in mixed form
coming into the tournament. It was whitewashed 3-0 by India in January
but bounced back by defeating South Africa 2-1 in an away series.
The
batting has been in good form, with Glenn Maxwell and David Warner
among the runs against South Africa. A lot will depend on Maxwell in
particular as he is expected to be the allrounder Australia needs in
Indian conditions.
New
Zealand, on the other hand, came into the tournament as underdogs and
will look to continue its momentum after the stunning win in Nagpur. Its
batsmen managed only 126 but the spinners – Ish Sodhi, Mitchell Santner
and Nathan McCullum – shared nine wickets among them to skittle out the
host nation for just 79.
The pitch in Dharamsala
is also expected to assist spinners and could leave New Zealand with a
headache over whether to bring back pacemen Trent Boult and Tim Southee.
Kane Williamson
took some brave decisions by leaving out his frontline pacers against
India for a spin-heavy attack and it would be interesting to see if the
team management continues the strategy against Australia.
But
for all this, the rain gods have to stay away from Dharamsala. Rain
played a big part in the Group A matches held there last week, and the
theme continued on Thursday, with the ground under covers once again.
"We
haven't picked a team yet. We are waiting. We don't know what's going
to happen with the weather," said Smith. "There are a few variables
there so we are going to wait and see. We are not set on the team for
each game. We could chop and change a bit. The guys have to be flexible
throughout the tournament and I think it will take all fifteen of us if
we have to win it."
Teams
New Zealand:
Kane Williamson (captain), Corey Anderson, Trent Boult, Martin Guptill,
Grant Elliott, Colin Munro, Mitchell McClenaghan, Nathan McCullum, Adam
Milne, Henry Nicholls, Luke Ronchi, Mitchell Santner, Ish Sodhi, Tim
Southee, Ross Taylor.
Australia:
Steven Smith (captain), David Warner, Ashton Agar, Nathan Coulter-Nile,
James Faulkner, Aaron Finch, John Hastings, Josh Hazlewood, Usman
Khawaja, Mitchell Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Peter Nevill, Andrew Tye, Shane
Watson, Adam Zampa.
source:icc-cricket
loading...
0 Comments
We Will Love to Hear From You! Pls Comment Your Views...........