On Friday (8th November), the hosts New Zealand and the visitors England will play the fourth T20I of the five-match T20I series. McLean Park (Napier) will host this penultimate T20I of this series. Unlike the other T20Is of this series, it will be a night game that will begin at 06:00 PM (18:00) local time.
England won the first T20I of this series at Christchurch by seven wickets. But, the hosts New Zealand won the next two T20Is. The home team won the Wellington T20I by 21 runs while won the next T20I at Nelson by 14 runs. Ahead of the fourth T20I, the hosts are leading this series by 2-1.
New Zealand are looking to secure the home T20I series
After suffering a defeat in the opening T20I of this series, the hosts have found their forms back. They have achieved back-to-back victories and they are just one victory away to secure this T20I series. New Zealand are surely looking to secure this series in the Napier T20I.
Kane Williamson-less New Zealand batting still needs to be consistent. Especially, the openers need to provide good starts which can help the next batsmen to secure the big total.
The left-arm pacer Trent Boult is returning from this match as he has replaced Lockie Ferguson. Ferguson was selected for the first three matches of this series and now Boult will handle New Zealand’s pace bowling attack. After the wicketless bowling figures in the first T20I, Ferguson managed to pick up two wickets in each of the last two T20Is.
The Kiwi bowling line-up is very talented and they have taken the home advantage properly in the last two T20Is. Mitchell Santner, the left-arm spinner, is currently the leading wicket-taker in this series as he has taken seven wickets.
Must-win game for the visiting side England
In the last game, England got the good starts at chasing. However, the inexperienced batting line-up failed to handle properly the late situation. The batting is widely depended on the top orders.
While many visiting players are not much experienced, especially in T20I cricket, some experiments are also affecting this team.
In the last T20I, England hugely missed Jonny Bairstow and the in-form pacer Chris Jordan. They are likely to return in this important T20I.
The English bowlers are performing better but many of the bowlers still need more T20I experiences.
It is the must-win game for England as they can’t afford another defeat in this series.
Stats Preview:
(New Zealand)
i) New Zealand leg-spinner Ish Sodhi (47 wickets) needs to pick up three more wickets to complete his 50 T20I wickets. On the other hand, another left-arm spinner Mitchell Santner (45 wickets) is also five wickets away to complete the same feat. Till the date, only Tim Southee (73 wickets) and Nathan McCullum (58 wickets) have picked up 50+ T20I wickets for New Zealand.
ii) Colin Munro (1,470 runs) is 30 runs away to become the fifth New Zealand batsman to score 1,500 T20I runs.
iii) Colin Munro (924 runs) is 76 runs away to become the second New Zealand batsman to score 1,000 T20I runs at home. Only Martin Guptill has achieved this feat as he has scored 1,353 runs in home T20Is.
Where to watch:
Indians can watch this game live on Star Sports Network on Friday (5th November) from 10:30 AM IST. Meanwhile, SKY Sport will broadcast this live in New Zealand on Friday (5th November) from 06:00 PM (18:00 local time). On the other hand, Sky Sports will broadcast this in the UK on the same day from 05:00 AM (05:00).