On Sunday (10th November), the hosts New Zealand and the visitors England will face each other in the fifth and final T20I of the bilateral series at Eden Park No. 1 (Auckland).
England won the first T20I by seven wickets. Meanwhile, New Zealand won the next two matches of this series by 21 and 14 runs respectively. In the last T20I, which was the fourth game of this series, England batsmen created massive records and thrashed the hosts by 76 runs.
At present, the series is level by 2-2. So, the Sunday T20I is going to be the series decider.
New Zealand players need to be consistent
New Zealand are missing their captain and top batsman Kane Williamson. His absence is hearting the hosts batting line-up, as some batsmen are not consistent enough.
Tim Southee is playing the captaincy role of the New Zealand team in this series. Though his leadership guided the team to come back strongly in this T20I series, his captaincy faced massive criticism in the last game.
While the left-arm pacer Trent Boult returned to the national team from the last game, the Kiwi bowlers totally disappointed in that game. However, the bowling unit is the strength of this New Zealand side and most of them know how to make a come back from this situation.
Lesser experienced England team is looking for another dominating performance
English batsmen Dawid Malan and captain Eoin Morgan’s tall firing batting helped the visitors to win the last game dominantly. However, in this series, England batting is hugely depended on the top-order’s forms. The late batting line-up is not much experienced yet.
Meanwhile, the lesser experienced English bowling line-up has performed better in this series. However, the experienced pacer Chris Jordan is playing the major role in this bowling line-up.
Stats Preview:
(New Zealand)
i) Colin Munro (954 runs) is 46 runs behind 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 1,380 runs in home T20Is.
ii) Colin Munro (96 sixes) is four sixes away to complete his 100 T20I sixes. After Martin Guptill (108 sixes), Munro is going to be the second New Zealand batsman to hit 100 T20I sixes.
iii) By hitting one more sixer, Martin Guptill (299 sixes) will become the second New Zealand batsman to hit 300 international sixes. Former New Zealand cricketer Brendon McCullum was the first batsman in this list as he hit 398 international sixes.
iv) New Zealand leg-spinner Ish Sodhi (47 wickets) and left-arm spinner Mitchell Santner (47 wickets) both need to pick up three more wickets to complete their respective 50 T20I wickets. Till the date, only Tim Southee (73 wickets) and Nathan McCullum (58 wickets) have picked up 50+ T20I wickets for New Zealand.
(England)
i) Eoin Morgan (1,985 runs) is 15 runs away to complete 2,000 T20I runs. He will be the first English cricketer to score 2,000 T20I runs. A total of six batsmen have scored 2,000+ T20I runs till the date.
ii) Eoin Morgan (94 sixes) need to hit six sixes to complete his 100 T20I sixes. Till the date, three cricketers have hit 100+ T20I sixes. These three cricketers are Indian cricketer Rohit Sharma (115 sixes), New Zealand batsman Martin Guptill (108 sixes) and Windies star Chris Gayle (105 sixes).
iii) With seven more sixes, Eoin Morgan (293 sixes) will become the first English batsman to hit 300 international sixes.
Where to watch:
Indians can watch this game live on Star Sports Network on Sunday (10th November) from 06:30 AM IST. Meanwhile, SKY Sport will broadcast this live in New Zealand on Sunday (10th November) from 02:00 PM (14:00 local time). On the other hand, Sky Sports will broadcast this in the UK on the same day from 01:00 AM (01:00).