New Zealand vs England, 3rd T20I, Nelson: Preview, predictions, likely XIs

New Zealand vs England, 3rd T20I, Nelson: Preview, predictions, likely XIs

Martin Guptill New Zealand

New Zealand made a strong comeback in the 5-match T20I series against England by winning the second T20I convincingly by 21 runs. The series is now tied at 1-1 with three more matches to go.

New Zealand bounced back well in the second match after an indifferent performance. Martin Guptil who blasted three fours and two sixes to score a 28-ball 41 and indicated some return of form is a plus point for them. He would look to deliver even bigger innings in the rest of the matches. James Neesham in place of Scott Kuggeleijan adds more quality in their attack and he proved his mettle with a quickfire 22-ball 42 at the end. He and Colin de Grandhomme who scored a 12-ball 28 will be the mainstays for the New Zealand team to accelerate the scoreboard. Mitchell Santner delivered a Man-of-Match performance with three key wickets. Tim Southee started with a wicket first ball. Then he along with Lockie Ferguson, Ish Sodhi finished with two wickets each. They will again focus on picking up early wickets like last game where they got two wickets in the first two overs.

England had a terrible game in the last T20 where they dropped as many as five catches with James Vince dropping three. Overall in the bowling, they were lackluster except Chris Jordan who had three for 23 in his four overs. England would look up to their young bowlers like Saquib Mahmood, Pattrick brown, and Lewis Gregory to deliver better performance. While batting they need to focus on stability at the top as they lost too many wickets in first ten overs last time despite Eoin Morgan’s inspiring 32. In the lower order Jordan also contributed with the bat scoring 36, he along with Sam Curran and Gregory have the ability to provide a good finish to the England batting.

Head to head

England still lead 11-6 which also includes 6-3 on New Zealand soil.

Key players

Martin Guptil (New Zealand): Guptil is going through a rough patch since the World Cup 2019 but showed some glimpses of coming back to form. A couple of more good hits in the middle can help him to bring his absolute best which is so fitting for the shorter format.

Sam Curran (England): With England trying many new players in the series the all-round contribution from Sam Curran is vital for them. Curran opened the bowling and batted at number six for England, two key responsibilities given to him and he would like to deliver more and contribute in the team’s cause.

Likely XIs

New Zealand: Martin Guptill, Colin Munro, Tim Seifert (wk), Ross Taylor, Colin de Grandhomme, Daryl Mitchell, Mitchell Santner, James Neesham, Tim Southee (c), Ish Sodhi, Lockie Ferguson.

England: Jonny Bairstow, Dawid Malan, James Vince, Eoin Morgan (c), Sam Billings, Lewis Gregory, Sam Curran, Tom Curran, Chris Jordan, Adil Rashid, Pat Brown.

Prediction

England to win.