Published: Feb 02, 2015, 09:18 AM (IST)
Edited: Feb 02, 2015, 09:18 AM (IST)
New Zealand and Pakistan will play the last official One-Day International (ODI) ahead of the ICC World Cup 2015, on Tuesday at Napier. It will also be the last ODI of the two-match bilateral series in which the hosts, New Zealand are ahead with 1-0 lead, thanks to their comfortable victory at Wellington.
New Zealand go into this game clear favourites. New Zealand have the upper hand over Pakistan ever since their series win in United Arab Emirates (UAE) in December 2014. New Zealand are far ahead in terms of team combination, confidence and momentum, especially when it comes to ODIs.
Brendon McCullum‘s boys are currently the hot favourites to win the ICC World Cup 2015. Whereas no-one apart from few die-hard, over-enthusiast fans of Pakistan are considering the boys in green for the title. So on that regard the Napier ODI will be Pakistan’s last chance to bounce back and prove to their critics that this team has the potential of repeating the performances of 1992 World Cup.
At Wellington, in the first ODI, Pakistan were completely outplayed. Their top order had no answer of the pace and movement of the Kiwi bowlers. If they want to put up a fight at Napier, batsmen like Mohammad Hafeez, Ahmed Shehzad, Younis Khan, Sarfraz Ahmed and skipper Misbah-ul-Haq need to take more responsibility and craft a solid foundation. Based on which, Shahid Afridi and Umar Akmal can give finishing touches to the innings. On those conditions playing out the initial overs with minimum damage is very important. Pakistan bowling also looked bit rusty. The bowlers need to address this issue as well.
New Zealand on the other hand are doing most things right. They just need to continue their good work. For this crucial encounter, the rested trio of the last game Daniel Vettori, Kane Williamson and Mitchell McClenaghan are likely to comeback into the playing eleven.
This game will provide one last genuine opportunity to both New Zealand and Pakistan to give finishing touches to their World Cup preparations.
Squads:
Pakistan: Misbah-ul-Haq (c), Mohammad Hafeez, Ahmed Shehzad, Younis Khan, Umar Akmal, Sarfraz Ahmed (wk), Shahid Afridi, Bilawal Bhatti, Wahab Riaz, Sohail Khan, Mohammad Irfan, Haris Sohail, Ehsan Adil, Yasir Shah, Sohaib Maqsood
New Zealand: Brendon McCullum (c), Martin Guptill, Kane Williamson, Ross Taylor, Grant Elliott, Corey Anderson, Luke Ronchi(wk), Daniel Vettori, Tim Southee, Kyle Mills, Trent Boult, Mitchell McClenaghan, Tom Latham, Nathan McCullum, Adam Milne
Time: 13:00 Local |06:30 IST | 01:00 GMT
(Sandipan Banerjee is a reporter at CricketCountry. Cricket has been the biggest passion for him since his childhood. So, when it came to choosing his career, he chose to turn his passion into his profession. Apart from cricket he likes mountain trekking, river rafting and photography. His twitter handle is @im_sandipan)
