Black Caps batting aggression key in T20 World Cup semifinal against Pakistan
Black Caps coach Gary Stead says his players will be familiar with the feeling of playing knockout cricket, having made it that far at five white-ball World Cups in a row.
Twenty20 World Cup semifinal: Black Caps v Pakistan
Where: Sydney Cricket Ground; When: Wednesday, 9pm
Live coverage: Sky Sport 3, live updates on Stuff
Likely XIs: New Zealand – Finn Allen, Devon Conway, Kane Williamson (captain), Glenn Phillips, Daryl Mitchell, Jimmy Neesham, Mitchell Santner, Ish Sodhi, Tim Southee, Lockie Ferguson, Trent Boult. Pakistan – Mohammad Rizwan, Babar Azam (captain), Mohammad Haris, Shan Masood, Mohammad Nawaz, Iftikhar Ahmed, Shadab Khan, Mohammad Wasim, Naseem Shah, Haris Rauf, Shaheen Shah Afridi.
ANALYSIS: A more aggressive Black Caps batting attack may prove the key in the first T20 World Cup semifinal in Sydney on Wednesday night.
New Zealand take on Pakistan for a place in the final for the second year running, with their increased rate of boundaries scored a key factor in topping their Super 12 group.
Opener Finn Allen has been given a licence to go after the bowlers from ball one, while the in-form Glenn Phillips has also bolstered New Zealand’s ability to boost their runs in chunks of four and six.
In their four group matches in Australia at the 2022 tournament, the Black Caps have tallied 74 boundaries – 23 sixes and 51 fours. That’s one more than they managed in five group matches last year in the UAE, where they made the final before bowing to Australia.
New Zealand didn’t score more than 16 boundaries in a group game last year but have passed that mark three times already in Australia, registering 23 in the opening-night win over the hosts and 21 versus Ireland in their final Super 12 game.
Former head coach Mike Hesson, in predicting New Zealand will make the final and meet India, said he was impressed with the way that the Black Caps have taken the tournament on.
Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images New Zealand’s Glenn Phillips has been one of the leading batters at the T20 World Cup.
“Heading into it, I was worried about New Zealand being a little bit passive with the bat in particular – they haven't been,” Hesson told Sky Sport.
“The openers are going to take the game on against Pakistan.”
New Zealand may be wary that the Sydney Cricket Ground wicket won’t offer the same bounce and pace as some other World Cup venues have – spinners prospered best on a used pitch last week when England clinched their place in the second semifinal versus India to be contested in Adelaide on Thursday night.
But last year’s runners-up will still be likely to want to unleash Allen and Phillips while Devon Conway and Kane Williamson take a more measured approach in the sudden-death encounter at a tournament where big team scores batting first have been rare.
While spin proved hard for the Sri Lanka and England batters to combat, that likely won’t be enough for Williamson and coach Gary Stead to consider a three-man slow bowling unit by adding offspinning allrounder Michael Bracewell, who excelled against Pakistan in the warm-up tri-series in Christchurch last month.
To do so would require leaving out either allrounder Jimmy Neesham – yet to bowl an over in the tournament – or speedster Lockie Ferguson. Neither have had stellar tournaments but Ferguson has been a little unfortunate – he had Jos Buttler dropped in the defeat to England – and Neesham remains one of the best closers of an innings with the bat and helped swing last year’s semifinal NZ’s way.
Instead, New Zealand will still boast Mitchell Santner and Ish Sodhi and rely on the variations and guile of Tim Southee and Trent Boult.
In shades of the 1992 one-day World Cup, Pakistan looked little chance of making the last four after losing to India and Zimbabwe, but were given an open window to progress through by South Africa’s defeat by the Netherlands and accepted it with little drama in seeing off Bangladesh.
James Elsby/AP Pakistan's Babar Azam has made just 39 runs in five innings at the tournament to date.
But if Black Caps’ fans have been worried by the pace of Williamson’s innings, Pakistan’s followers must be terrified by the lack of form by skipper Babar Azam.
The opening bat has managed just 39 runs from five innings, and at a run-rate of 61.90. The skipper and fellow opener Mohammad Rizwan have been the backbone of Pakistan’s T20 runs in recent years but Rizwan has also battled at the tournament, averaging 20.60 with a run-a-ball strike rate.
However, the side which defeated the Black Caps in the tri-series final has been buoyed by the return from injury of star quick Shaheen Shah Afridi. The left-armer took 4-22 against Bangladesh and looms as a major threat to New Zealand’s hopes of an immediate return to the final.
Most Popular
