New Zealand will look to win their second game of the first round of the ICC World T20 tournament when they face Zimbabwe at Providence Stadium in Guyana on Tuesday. New Zealand had won the first game of the tournament in a nail-biting finish against the Sri Lankans and will like to get into the second round with a lot of confidence as they will look to beat Zimbabwe.

New Zealand will now know that the pitch will assist a lot of spin and slower bowlers, which would mean that the Zimbabweans will be packed the slower bowlers. This will also mean that Zimbabwe will go into the game with a lot of confidence, after all, they had not only beaten the Aussies in the warm-up matches but also taken the scalp of Pakistan.

The two wins that the Zimbabwean side had notched up were thanks to their slower bowlers who managed to tie the opposition to knows and the batting of Elton Chigumbura. In one game he scored a half century, whereas in the second game he had an equally strong 49 going his way which paved way for the win.

Apart from Chigumbura, Zimbabwe will obviously rely on the likes of Prosper Utseya, their captain and an excellent flight bowler, and Ray Price, both of whom can tie the opposition batsmen well.

The batting will revolve around the strength of the likes of Vusi Sibanda and Hamilton Masakadza, both of whom are known to be good hitters of the ball, but the one batsman that I will like to see bat well is Tatenda Taibu. Taibu is a wicket-keeper who would score the big runs before he quit playing for Zimbabwe, and now, on his return, seems to have lost his touch.

As compared to that, New Zealand have gone well with their bowling, what with Nathan McCullum opening the attack, and Daniel Vettori bowling a good spell or two at the end of the innings. However, it is their batting that could deserve a closer look. After all, Brendon McCullum got a duck in the previous game and that was followed by some ordinary stroke-play down the order except Jesse Ryder.

If New Zealand have to go ahead into the knock-out stages of the tournament, their batting will need to start coming good as soon as it can. For that, the likes of Martin Guptill and Scott Styris will need to chip with some valuable contributions down the order.

Tag :- Daniel Vettori   ICC World T20   New Zealand   Prosper Utseya   Scott Styris   Tatenda Taibu   Zimbabwe