Tag: ODI

Chance for NZ, SA to Break Series Deadlock

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New Zealand finally managed to break South Africa’s long standing unbeaten one day international cricket streak with a tight 6-run win in Christchurch on Wednesday. The win, built around a solid first innings total and some excellent death bowling, gives the series much-needed context, rather than the prospect of a rampant runaway away side.

The close nature of the two completed games suggests another close one may be on the cards at Westpac Stadium. The teams have played twice at the venue before with one win apiece. AB de Villiers will have fond memories of the ground, he scored 106* here in 2012 to win South Africa the game.

The Series So Far

Game one was a rip-roaring affair that went down to the final over. The result was a win to South Africa by four wickets.

Game two was awfully similar. Down to the last over again, this time New Zealand managed to get their death bowling in order to sneak a win by 6 runs. The win was built around solid contributions from Ross Taylor (102*), Jimmy Neesham (71*) and Kane Williamson (69), but at the halfway stage, New Zealand’s 289 looked to be about 20 runs short on an excellent surface.

South Africa’s chase again looked on course at 192-4, before middle over wobbles saw the wheels briefly fall off at 214-8. The optimism was restored with a fighting ninth-wicket partnership of 61 between Pretorius and Phehlukwayo only for Tim South and Trent Boult to produce 10 un-hittable block hole deliveries.

The Teams

South Africa (from)

AB de Villiers (capt), Faf du Plessis, Hashim Amla, Farhaan Behardien, Quinton de Kock (wk), JP Duminy, Imran Tahir, David Miller, Chris Morris, Wayne Parnell, Dane Paterson, Andile Phehlukwayo, Dwaine Pretorius, Kagiso Rabada, Tabraiz Shamsi

There was no surprise to see Behardien lose his place in the side after his struggles and David Miller contributed to a much more balanced side. The Proteas desperately missed Kagiso Rabada and will be hanging out for his return to full fitness.

New Zealand (from)

Kane Williamson (capt), Trent Boult, Neil Broom, Lockie Ferguson, Colin de Grandhomme, Martin Guptill, Matt Henry, Tom Latham, James Neesham, Luke Ronchi, Mitchell Santner, Tim Southee, Ish Sodhi, Ross Taylor

Tom Latham is under huge pressure after struggling to make an impact in the series thus far. Wearing the gloves seems to be an imposition he hasn’t been able to deal with. NZ will probably remain unchanged, but the Sodhi vs Ferguson debate will probably be had again on the morning of the match.

The Key Players

South Africa

Quinton de Kock hasn’t looked in the best form since he’s arrived in New Zealand, but he hasn’t let that stop his scoring. After a duck in the T20 game, de Kock responded nicely with 69 in the opening one-dayer despite struggling with his timing early (although most others did too). And then 57 on Wednesday in Christchurch. It’a measure of his ability that he turned the difficult starts into a score, although surprising he didn’t turn either fifties into a hundred. His conversion rate is incredible, 12 hundreds and 11 fifties, and the fifty and out was a surprise ending on both occasions.

New Zealand

Colin de Grandhomme probably should’ve played more cricket for the Black Caps than he has. A devastating all-rounder at domestic level, de Grandhomme has struggled to find his feet at international level. However, recent performances might be indicating that the footing is getting a little more stable. de Grandhomme has made important contributions with both bat and ball in the opening two games of the tour, 34* off 19 balls in the ODI; 15 off 7 in the T20 and 2-22 with the ball in the T20. It’s these ‘bits and pieces’ contributions that make him a valuable all-rounder and a high strike rate cameo could be the difference between NZ winning and losing.

The Match Odds*

South Africa – $1.55

New Zealand – $2.45

*All odds from Unibet.

The Prediction

New Zealand has a lot of players contributing to their success. Bowlers are sharing wickets, batsmen are in the runs (excluding Latham) and we think that’s enough to give them a win here by 5 wickets or 30 runs.

The Best Bets

Casting aside some individual player betting markets for a second, we’ve found a near certainty. Okay, so nothing’s a certainty, but South Africa to have the higher opening partnership (Amla and de Kock) at $1.72 looks easy money. Tom Latham can’t buy a run.

Individually, Chris Morris is priced at $4.25 to be South Africa’s top bowler. He’s swung the ball both ways in the opening two outings and is a nice option again.

Cricket: England v Ireland Preview – One Off ODI

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England’s young brigade get the opportunity to atone for their incompetent seniors when the national cricket team meet Ireland at Malahide tomorrow.  While the heavily criticised stars who failed to beat West Indies in the recently concluded test series travel home, a wildly different looking side get the chance to dampen the choruses for coach Peter Moores’ head and press their own claims.

Ireland on the other hand will be ecstatic at the chance to worsen England’s already dark mood.  They’ll look to their 2011 World Cup upset over England as motivation for a shock win.

The Last Time These Two Met

Associate nations and test playing nations meet rarely.  The last time these two sides met was in 2013 where England won by 6 wickets.  The two matches prior to that were much closer however.  A narrow England win in August 2011 was preceded by the famous Ireland win in the 2011 Cricket World Cup.

Form against one another and generally is well out the window in predicting the outcome of this one.  The plethora of red ball cricket means both teams will be underdone, and the difficulty in predicting how the English debutants get on is obvious.

The Teams

England (likely): 1 Alex Hales, 2 Jason Roy, 3 James Vince, 4 James Taylor (capt), 5 Sam Billings, 6 Jonny Bairstow (wk), 7 David Willey, 8 Adil Rashid, 9 Tim Bresnan, 10 Steven Finn, 11 Mark Wood.

James Taylor leads England for the first time and takes charge of a team with too many (5) debutants to feature here.  Zafar Ansari and Lewis Gregory are the other options in the 13.

Ireland (likely): 1 William Porterfield (capt), 2 Paul Stirling, 3 Ed Joyce, 4 Niall O’Brien, 5 Andy Balbirnie, 6 Gary Wilson (wk), 7 Kevin O’Brien, 8 John Mooney, 9 George Dockrell, 10 Alex Cusack, 11 Craig Young/Stuart Thompson

Ireland have lost Tim Murtagh from their World Cup XI in one of the few changes expected from the tournament earlier in the year.

The Key Players

Adil Rashid – He should’ve played in the final test in the West Indies.  He is far more of a frontline spinner than Moeen Ali is and thoroughly deserves his chance to replace James Tredwell as England’s premiere limited overs and test spinner.  Hopefully the lack of cricket he’s played over the past few months isn’t reflected in his bowing.

William P0rterfield – The Irish captain was their best performing batsman at the World Cup.  In 6 matches he scored 275 runs at an average of 45.83 with a hundred and a fifty.  He’s also getting some hand 30/40 starts in his first class matches for Warwickshire in the always difficult early season conditions.

The Match Odds*

England – $1.35

Ireland – $3.21

*Courtesy of Sportsbet Australia.

The Prediction

England’s young troops should have too much talent for Ireland’s ageing troops.  We’re giving this one to England by 4 wickets or 50 runs.

The Best Bets

Sam Billings is a talented keeper batsman but makes this team as a specialist batsman.  He’s listed to come in at 5 which could be perfect if their’s early movement around.  Get on him to top score at $9.50.

For gimmicks sake try the Direction of First Boundary bet.  The leg side is paying a decent $2.00.  Surely one of the game’s openers has a pull shot or leg glance in them.

Cricket: New Zealand keen to avoid any more slip ups

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The Black Caps only have themselves to blame for letting Sri Lanka back in the series after a calamitous effort in the second one-day international in Hamilton.  Instead of hammering home a Brendon McCullum inspired advantage, the Black Caps slipped an tripped their way to four run-outs and a below par total.

Sri Lanka rammed open the door, building pressure with spin and then making a mockery of New Zealand’s pace bowling stocks with an effortless chase.

New Zealand have some serious work to do to avoid losing two straight when the third match of the series gets underway at Eden Park.  Eden Park will suit both sides; New Zealand, as the small boundaries neutralise the threat of the spinners, and Sri Lanka will enjoy a second straight game without swing on offer.

The balanced conditions will make for an intriguing encounter.

The Last Time These Two Met

Game two was a lesson in how to construct a run chase.  It was also a lesson in how not to run between the wickets; New Zealand failing the even simplest of rules of backing up and ball-watching.  Sri Lanka gave the chasing lesson.  In particular Dilshan who scored the bulk of the 249 required runs, easing his way to 116 with effortless drives and pull shots.  If New Zealand’s bowlers were guilty of bowling two lengths; offering up too many four balls, their batsman were guilty of imploding between the wickets.

The Black Caps were on track to score well over 300 after that man McCullum scored another hundred.  Rather than push on though, his side threw away wicket after wicket eventually ending on 248; 50 short on the easy surface.  The tourists did not make the same mistakes, losing only four wickets en-route to levelling the series.  Dilshan was aptly assisted by Kumar Sangakkara (38), Mahela Jayawardene (27) and Angelo Matthews (39*).

The Teams

New Zealand (likely): 1 Martin Guptill, 2 Brendon McCullum (capt), 3 Tom Latham, 4 Ross Taylor, 5 Grant Elliott/ Daniel Vettori, 6 Luke Ronchi (wk), 7 Corey Anderson, 8 Nathan McCullum, 9 Tim Southee, 10 Mitchell McClenaghan, 11 Adam Milne/Trent Boult.

Tim Southee is available for the first time in the series.  He may feature at the expense of Matt Henry leaving two of Milne, McClenaghan and Boult to partner him.  No update has been given on Grant Elliot’s family illness that had him miss game two.

Sri Lanka (likely):  1 Dimuth Karunaratne, 2 Tillakaratne Dilshan, 3 Kumar Sangakkara (wk), 4 Mahela Jayawardene, 5 Angelo Mathews (capt), 6 Lahiru Thirimanne, 7 Thisara Perara, 8 Jeevan Mendis, 9 Nuwan Kulasekara, 10 Sachithra Senanayake, 11 Suranga Lakmal/ Rangana Herath.

The pitch at Eden Park may determine how many spinners Sri Lanka play.  They’ll certainly be tempted to fill the gates with them, but won’t go overboard if the pitch won’t suit.  No other changes expected.

The Key Players

Ross Taylor – Despite sitting game one out for a rest, Taylor looked dreadfully out of sorts in game two, and arguably cause much of the run out confusion by setting the scene of uncertainty.  Taylor laboured to 34 from 69 balls before resorting to a leg side hoick and losing his wicket.  Taylor needs to find a way to rotate the strike against the slow bowlers.  He also needs lots more cricket before the CWC.  We’re still backing him contribute though.

Tillakaratne Dilshan – The change in his batting from Christchurch to Hamilton was remarkable.  No longer swishing aimlessly through the offside, instead driving the ball forcefully through the off side and dismissing every short ball (even the ones at 150 clicks).  His bowling and field was also exemplary in a fine all round display.  Dilshan is always involved; expect the same in Auckland.

The Match Odds*

New Zealand – $1.67

Sri Lanka – $2.20

*Courtesy of Bookmaker.com.au.

The Prediction

This could go either way.  We’re tempted to pick Sri Lanka again as we have no confidence in Guptill, Taylor, Latham, and Elliot / Vettori to score runs at the moment.  McCullum can’t keep propping New Zealand up.  The frugal spin options that Sri Lanka have at their disposal (despite the small straight boundaries) is also a reason to back them.  Accordingly, we’re going with Sri Lanka to take a 2-1 lead.