New Zealand Women vs India Women, NZW vs INDW, Today Match Prediction 09 February 2022

nzw vs indw Match Prediction & Analysis

India Women will kickstart their preparations for the ICC Women’s World Cup 2021-22 campaign with a bilateral series against New Zealand Women. The series will have a T20I followed by 5 ODI matches. The only T20I between these two is scheduled on 9th February at John Davies Oval, Queenstown from 5:30 am (Indian Standard Time). To keep players safe from Covid-19, all games will be played at the same venue under a bio-safe environment.

India Women are playing New Zealand Women for the first time since ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2020. In the close encounter, India-W beat New Zealand-W by three runs to qualify for the semis. Shafali Verma stole the show with 46 runs of 34 balls to get the Player of the Match trophy. Chasing 134, NZ-W lost early wickets. Maddy Green and Katey Martin’s 43 run stand brought them back in the game. Amelia Kerr’s 34 runs of 19 balls at the end added a scare for India-W but was not enough for New Zealand to fetch a win.

India Women last visited New Zealand in 2019 for three-ODI match series. The visitors won the series 2-1. Smriti Mandhana was the highlight of the series with 196 runs at an average of 98. While Poonam Yadav impressed with 6 wickets at an economy of 4.44.

TEAMS PREVIEW

New Zealand Women Preview

World number one T20I all-rounder Sophie Devine will lead the White Ferns with Amy Satterwhite as her deputy. The skipper will open with World number seven Batter Suzie Bates. Devine has an astonishing record against India Women. She has scored 295 runs in 11 T20Is against the visitors at a strike rate of 147.50. Her experience will come in handy at the top-order. India’s bowling attack is not new for Suzie Bates. She has amassed 245 runs against the familiar opponents with two half-centuries. Maddie Green and Brooke Halliday are set to take the middle-order roles with Katey Martin behind the wickets. 

Jess Kerr and Helyley Jensen will lead the bowling attack in the absence of Leigh Kasperek. The Kerr sisters Jess and Amelia will play a crucial role against India as both are in a lethal form at the same time. Amelia Kerr was the center of New Zealand Women’s last T20Is against Australia. She took 2 wickets for 18 followed by 18 runs in 10 balls with the bat.

Key Players: Suzie Bates, Amelia Kerr, Sophie Devine.

New Zealand Women Predicted Playing XI:

Sophie Devine (C), Amy Satterthwaite (VC), Suzie Bates, Lauren Down, Maddy Green, Brooke Halliday, Hayley Jensen, Jess Kerr, Melie Kerr, Katey Martin, Hannah Rowe

New Zealand Women Actual Playing XI:

Jess Kerr, Brooke Halliday, Hannah Rowe, Hayley Jensen, Lauren Down, Maddy Green, Lea Tahuhu, Amelia Kerr, Suzie Bates, Sophie Devine, Katey Martin

India Women Preview

Harmanpreet Kaur will lead the India Women with Smriti Mandhana as her deputy. The World number one T20I batter Shafali Verma and Smriti Mandhana will open the Indian batting. Verma is currently going through a lean patch. She has scored just 70 runs in the last 5 T20Is. But her overall strike rate is 142.53 - one New Zealand Women should not ignore. Smriti Mandhana was recently named the ICC Women’s Cricketer of the Year. Mandhana has hammered New Zealand Women in the last few outings. She has scored 191 runs in the last 4 T20I against New Zealand at a strike rate of 145.8. 

India has excluded Jemimah Rodrigues after her poor performance against South Africa at home. Yastika Bhatia has been selected over Shikha Pandey keeping World Cup in mind. Bhatia has played two T20Is so far but has an impressive ODI record of 103 runs in 3 games including a half-century. Harmanpreet Kaur will boost the middle-order. Kaur has a strike rate of over 125 in her last 5 T20Is.

The world number four bowler Deepti Sharma will lead the bowling attack. Sharma has been the most economical amongst the lot. Pooja Vastrakar and Poonam Yadav will be the remaining soldiers of India’s bowling unit. Yadav was impressive on the last New Zealand tour. She finished as the most wicket-taker of the series with 6 wickets in 3 matches.

Key Players: Smriti Mandhana, Shafali Verma, Poonam Yadav

India Women Predicted Playing XI:

Harmanpreet Kaur (Captain), Smriti Mandhana (vice-captain), Shafali Verma, Yastika Bhatia, Deepti Sharma, Sneh Rana, Pooja Vastrakar, Taniya Bhatia (wicket-keeper), Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Poonam Yadav, Ekta Bisht.

India Women Actual Playing XI:

Sneh Rana, Deepti Sharma, Sabbhineni Meghana, Simran Dil Bahadur, Poonam Yadav, Harmanpreet Kaur, Shafali Verma, Yastika Bhatia, Richa Ghosh, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Pooja Vastrakar

PITCH AND WEATHER CONDITIONS

Weather Conditions

The cloudy weather is predicted throughout the T20. The chances of rain are 90%. The temperature will range between 23°C and 17°C with winds blowing at 5kmh. The pitch is bowling-friendly.

Venue Details

The series will be hosted at John Davies Oval, Queenstown. It has an average capacity of 19000 spectators and accommodates rugby games too. So far 9 ODIs have been played at John Davies Oval.

Toss: To Bowl

This will be the first T20I played at this venue across Men's and Women’s games. 10 ODIs have been played here prior to the only T20Is. The team batting first has come out with only one favorable outcome compared to the team batting two which has 7 wins. Therefore team winning the toss should field first.