 England will face New Zealand in an all-important last league game for
Group B. This match will decide who joins England in the semi-finals from
the second group; New Zealand or Sri Lanka. The fourth team in the competition,
South Africa, has already been knocked out of the tournament.
Click for Live Score Card of England Vs New Zealand
The equation for the Kiwis is simple. They need to win this game to get through
to the semi-finals. A loss would mean that Sri Lanka and New Zealand will tie
on points, and then it will boil down to the net run rate. The issue for New
Zealand here is that already their NRR is less than the Sri Lankan side, and
if they did go to lose, the NRR will fall down further, thus allowing Sri Lanka
to qualify for the semi-finals - a back door entry!
If the two games that England has played so far are anything to go by, then,
one can be rest assured that their performance will be ones to watch out for.
With not too many experts really noticing them, they have almost reversed the
6-1 scoreline against Australia not so long ago and converted the underdogs
status to their advantage. The difference between their side and any other one
in the competition, is that they have had players taking charge and converting
their scores into something big. So, if it was Eoin Morgan in the first
game, Owais Shah got a 98 in the second match to get going with the English
total.
In the first game that the English had played, also at the same venue, they
had eked out early Sri Lankan wickets on a swinging Johannesburg wicket to thwart
the Sri Lankans. The issue with the Wanderers wicket for this game is that for
the first few games, it was swinging, or all cracked up and gave rise to unevenness,
but the previous match had seen Sri Lanka bear the brunt of a placid track and
make the cardinal error in fielding first when they should have batted. Things
could get interesting for the team winning the toss this time around, especially
if the Kiwis were to win the toss.
The New Zealand side has already received a setback with the injury of Jesse Ryder. It will be interesting to see who opens the batting for them in the game.
The bowling continues to revolve around the likes of Bond and Tuffey, who would
hope for a bit more grass than in the game against Sri Lanka. They pair could
be very handful!
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