Wellington Firebirds vs Otago Volts, Super Smash 2020-21, Today Match Prediction 24 Jan 2021

wf vs ov Match Prediction & Analysis

Super Smash league has reached the business end of the league phase and three teams are having a considerable lead over the bottom placed teams. Canterbury, Wellington, and Central Districts are the top 3 teams and have 20 points so far. Northern Knights and Auckland are out of the contention for the knockouts. Otago are hanging with a chance to qualify for the knockouts if they manage to win all their remaining matches and one of the top-3 team’s end up losing all their remaining matches. Wellington will look to win this match and end the hopes of Otago and move one step closer to finishing at the top of the table.

TEAMS PREVIEW

Wellington Firebirds Preview

Wellington suffered a massive collapse at the top and were struggling at 40/4 after which James Neesham (49 runs) and Bracewell (32 runs) rescued the team with a 68-run partnership. Finn Allen (27 runs) and Van beek (29 runs) scored vital runs at the either ends of the innings to finish with a score of 154/7 in 20 overs.

Their bowlers fought a hard battle but lost in a thrilling last over finish to lose by 4 wickets. Hamish Bennett (2 wickets) and Logan Van Beek (1 wicket) bowled with good control and troubled the opposition batsmen consistently. Doug Bracewell was injured while batting and his bowling was missed by the team in the last game.

Top players to bet on:

Finn Allen – Allen is giving aggressive starts to the team at the top and has set the tone of their innings so far. He has 349 runs at a strike rate of 190+ in the 6 matches so far.  He has 4 fifties and two 90+ scores in 6 matches.

Van Beek – Van beek came up with an all-round performance last night first scoring 29 runs off 10 balls to finish the innings with flourish and then bowling superbly with figures of 4-0-26-. He will take confidence of this performance and will look to replicate it in the coming matches.   

Wellington Firebirds Predicted Playing XI:

Devon Conway, Finn Allen, Rachin Ravindra, Tom Blundell (wk), James Neesham, Michael Bracewell/Ian McPeake (c), Jamie Gibson, Troy Johnson, Logan van Beek, Peter Younghusband, Hamish Bennett, Ben Sears

Wellington Firebirds Actual Playing XI:

Rachin Ravindra, Hamish Bennett, Devon Conway, Logan van Beek, Ben Sears, PY Husband, Jamie Gibson, Michael Bracewell, Finn Allen, Tom Blundell, Troy Johnson

Otago Volts Preview

Otago failed to gather momentum towards the middle phase of the innings as they collapsed from 77/1 to 145/9 in the last game.  Neil Broom (42 runs) and Nick Kelly build a strong platform with 62-run partnership for the second wicket. Anaru Kitchen scored a quick-fire 22-ball 41 balls to take their team`s total to a competitive total.

Their bowling unit did not bowl well and leaked runs at both ends as the opposition chased the target with 8 balls and 5 wickets in hand. Nathan Smith lead a lone battle with the ball as he picked 4 wickets and gave runs at just 8 RPO while all the other bowlers gave runs at over 10 RPO.

Top players to bet on:

Neil Broom – Neil Broom is the top scorer for Otago with 191 runs at a strike arte of 140+ in the 6 matches so far. He looked good for his 30-ball 42 runs in the last game but his dismissal triggered a collapse in the middle order.

Michael Rippon – Rippon is the pick of the bowlers for their team this season with 8 wickets at an economy rate of 7.2 RPO. We expect him to make a good performance in this match.

Otago Volts Predicted Playing XI:

Hamish Rutherford, Nick Kelly, Neil Broom, Mitch Renwick (wk), Llew Johnson, Anaru Kitchen, Michael Rippon, Mitchell McClenaghan, Jacob Duffy (c), Michael Rae, Nathan Smith

Otago Volts Actual Playing XI:

Jacob Duffy, Neil Broom, Mitchell McClenaghan, Nathan Smith, Nick Kelly, Anaru Kitchen, Michael Rippon, Hamish Rutherford, Joshua Finnie, Max chu, Dale Phillips

PITCH AND WEATHER CONDITIONS

Weather Conditions

Wellington has a slightly dark and cloudy weather on the match day. But, weather forecasters predict only 10-20% chances of rain. We expect the rain to make only a brief appearance in the match.

Venue Details

Wellington is a good batting track where batsmen will enjoy the true bounce and pace on offer. Three out of 4 innings have scores around 175-180 runs and we expect 170-180 runs in this match too.

Toss: To Bowl

Teams will look to chase down the target on this good batting track and constant weather threat may force them to bat second in this match.