As Austrlaian fans who love to see the Poms under pressure, it’s the type of game we could have only dreamt of at the commencement of the 2019 Cricket World Cup. England will be fighting for their life against New Zealand this Wednesday night from 7.30pm!
We have a full preview and betting tips for the big game below.
England vs New Zealand Betting Tips
England
The host nation currently sits in fourth place on the round robin tournament with a 5-3 record through eight games. They defeated India on Sunday night to keep their hopes of progressing to the semi-finals alive but will likely still need to beat the Black Caps on Wednesday night to secure a berth in the finals.
If they do lose to New Zealand, they’ll need to rely on multiple games to go in their favour as Pakistan and Bangladesh are both within striking distance at the time of writing. Luckily for England, their batting line-up seemed to find the spark they were sorely missing through the middle stages of the round robin.
Batting first, they plundered 337 runs against India on Sunday night as Johnny Bairstow smashed a century in quick time while his opening partner Jason Roy returned to the line-up with an impressive 66 off 57.
New Zealand
With their current net run rate, it would be extremely unlucky for the Black Caps to miss the semi-finals from their position, although it is still mathematically possible. New Zealand faced off against the Aussies in their previous match and were beaten quite comfortably.
After Australia won the toss and elected to bat first, the Black Caps would have been happy with their bowling performance after they restricted the Aussies to just 9/243 off their 50 overs. Trent Boult was fantastic with the ball, taking 4/51 off his 10 overs.
The batting line-up has proved to be New Zealand’s Achilles heel and it was once again on Saturday night. Martin Guptill, Henry Nicholls, Tom Latham, Colin de Grandhomme and James Neesham were all dismissed cheaply as the Black Caps were rolled for just 157. Kane Williamson continues to be the only consistent performance in the batting line-up, having amassed 454 runs at a ridiculous average of 113.50.
Williamson top NZ runs
$3.00
Prediction
It just seems like a game that England are destined to lose doesn’t it? So many times, they have been in this position in a Cricket World Cup and choked miserably. However, with the form of the Black Caps batting line-up at the moment, we can’t see the home side losing this one. So much relies on Kane Williamson to make a big hundred if New Zealand is going to post a big score, which is something they’ll need to do if they are going to beat England.
Earlier in the tournament, the Black Caps shot off to a great start by restricting sides to under 250, which they did in their first three games, all wins. However, in the last two games they have managed just 237 and 157, both losses. That won’t cut it against an English batting line-up that is capable of posting 300+ even after losing a few early wickets.
