Australia vs New Zealand, New Zealand vs Australia 2020, Today Match Prediction 16 Mar 2020

aus vs nz Match Prediction & Analysis

Cricket is currently facing a big void with empty stadiums. The love affair between the game and the fans has come to a temporary halt due to the pandemic COVID-19 issue all around the globe. Australia and New Zealand went back to their retro crickets for this series while first ODI too brought back old memories with 250-ish totals, slow wickets, and chasing teams struggling to get there.

Australia is having a big edge over the Kiwis as they have never won a Chapell-Hadlee series in Australia so far. Australia will look to seal the series with a win while Kiwis will look to keep their hopes alive with a win in this match.

TEAMS PREVIEW

Australia Preview

Australia`s openers David Warner (67 runs) and Aaron Finch (60 runs) started off in good fashion sharing 124-run partnership. They slipped from 124/0 to 165/4 in very little time and then Marnus Labuschagne (56 runs) and Mitchell Marsh (27 runs) joined together to take them to an above-par total of 258 runs on this slow pitch. Aussie bowlers never allowed any room for the Kiwi batsmen to score freely applying the choke on the run rate. Pacers Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood (2 wickets), Pat Cummins (3 wickets) and all-rounder Mitchell Marsh (3 wickets) gave runs at just 4 RPO and shared 8 wickets amongst themselves in the match. Adam Zampa was the lone spinner in the team and took the important wickets of Williamson and De GrandHomme despite giving away 50 runs in his 8 overs.

KEY PLAYERS

David Warner – Warner looked very comfortable in his stay scoring 67 runs off 88 balls with 9 boundaries. He will look to continue his good form and he is a very tough player to stop in Australian conditions.

Pat Cummins – Pat Cummins had bowling figures of 8-2-25-3 in the match claiming the important wickets of Guptill and Neesham. Cummins has become a bowling leader of the Australian attack with his consistent performances recently.

Australia Predicted Playing XI:

Aaron Finch (c), David Warner, Steven Smith, Mitchell Marsh, Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins, Adam Zampa, Alex Carey (wk), Marnus Labuschagne, D Arcy Short, Josh Hazlewood

New Zealand Preview

New Zealand batsmen crumbled to 187-all out chasing 259 runs for victory. Opener Martin Guptill made a slow 78-ball 40 runs with wickets falling around him regularly. Tom Latham (38 runs) and Colin De GrandHomme (25 runs) resisted the Aussie attack with small cameos but was never going to challenge the total. New Zealand batsmen need to step up and score consistently to put a good score on board. Spinners Ish Sodhi and Mitchell Santner shared 5 wickets among themselves and kept chipping in the middle overs effectively. Lockie Ferguson returned after his injury scare and took 2 wickets but gave away runs at over 6 RPO. Kiwis may be forced to bring in Kyle Jamieson or Tim Southee in place of James Neesham to strengthen their bowling attack.

KEY PLAYERS

Tom Latham – Latham was the only player who looked comfortable for his 38 runs off 40 balls. He shared a 50-run partnership with De GrandHomme from 96/5 to 147/6 but was not able to threaten the chase.

Mitchell Santner – Santner has superb bowling figures of 10-0-34-2 in the match and he took the big wickets of Aaron Finch and Steve Smith. He led the Kiwi fightback after the good start by the Aussies.

New Zealand Predicted Playing XI:

Martin Guptill, Henry Nicholls, Kane Williamson (c), Ross Taylor, Tom Latham (wk), Kyle Jamieson/Tim Southee, Colin de Grandhomme, Mitchell Santner, Ish Sodhi, Lockie Ferguson, Trent Boult

PITCH AND WEATHER CONDITIONS

Weather Conditions

The weather looks little dark and cloudy with 50% chances of rain on the match day. We expect nio more than some interruptions in the match.

Venue Details

SCG has become one of the slow pitches and batsmen will find it hard to time the ball easily. We can expect yet another score in range of 230-250 runs in this match.

Toss: To Bat

The pitch slows down considerably more in the second innings and run scoring becomes very difficult. Both captains will look bat first here.