New Zealand Team Preview

Best Odds for New Zealand to Win

Betway are offering the best odds of 8.5 about New Zealand winning the World T20, and it’s a price worth considering.

The best odds for New Zealand are a good reflection of the fact that this is a side that is always excellent in the field, generally has a good balance to the team (with at least two high-class all-rounders in their usual XI) and always boasts two or three players who would walk into any other World XI. We’ll come to those in a second.

One of the golden rules of online cricket betting is that New Zealand are always the dark horse ahead of any tournament and time and time again, they defy expectations and the odds to go much deeper than many would have thought.

The flip side is that they’ve now made the final of the last two ODI World Cups and the last T20 world Cup and they lost all three.

New Zealand’s Performance in 2021

Things didn’t get off to a good start last year, the Black Caps posting a sub-par score of 134 in their first match, easily chased by Pakistan.

One more mistake and they were almost certainly out.

But in a must-win match against India, they bowled beautifully, India were too passive with the bat and a chase of just 111 ended up being as straightforward as it looked.

And they followed up that excellent win with three more in a row.

First up was a run-of-the-mill victory over Scotland, then they were too good for Namibia and in a tough test, got the better of Afghanistan, chasing 125 with the minimum of fuss.

They were then up against the highly-fancied England in the semis. The key moment in the game was that New Zealand won the toss so fielded first, a huge boost like it had been all tournament.

But England’s 166/4 looked competitive and New Zealand were in trouble with key men Martin Guptill and Kane Williamson both dismissed cheaply.

But Daryl Mitchell accelerated at just the right time and finished unbeaten on 72, with good support from Devon Conwy and a nice cameo of 27 off 18 from James Neesham.

And with that, they were in their first-ever T20 World Cup final.

New Zealand batted first against Australia and their 172/4 wasn’t a total to be sniffed at, thanks to a brilliant knock from skipper Kane Williamson, who scored 85 off 48, including some big sixes late on.

But as had been the story of the whole tournament, chasing was far easier than batting first.

Aussie skipper Aaron Finch was out cheaply but a 50 from David Warner got Australia on their way and a faultless knock from Mitch Marsh of 77 not out, helped in the latter stages by some clean hitting from Glenn Maxwell.

And with that, New Zealand had blown their chance of a first T20 World Cup.

New Zealand’s Performance in 2016

The Black Caps were brilliant in the Group Stages, winning three out of three in terms of their Group Stage matches which included a shock win over hosts India in the opening match of the tournament. In a low-scoring contest, New Zealand defended 126/7 pretty easily, Mitchell Santner bowling beautifully in taking 4/11.

They then beat Australia in another low-scoring game and then set Pakistan 181 to win in the last match, a total they never came close to chasing.

But they had a poor day at the office against England in the semis. They only managed 153/8 with Colin Munro the only one getting going with a well-measured 46 off 32. In reply Jason Roy got England off to a good start and it was easy from thereon for Eoin Morgan’s side, who famously went on to lose in the final against the Windies.

Santner and Ish Sodhi were two of the stand-out performers, each taking 10 wickets in just five games.

New Zealand facts

Let’s look at some interesting trivia about this New Zealand side.

• New Zealand are currently ranked fifth in the T20I rankings.
• Other than Devon Conway (ranked seventh for best T20I batsman) New Zealand don’t have any other players in the ICC Top 10 rankings for best batsman, bowler or all-rounder.
• Martin Guptill is the third highest runscorer in the history of T20I with 3494 runs, from 121 matches; only Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli have more.
• The now-retired Brendon McCullum has both of NZ’s top individual scores: 123 against Bangladesh and 116 against Australia.
• Colin Munro, now no longer part of new Zealand’s set-up, is the only Kiwi player with three international T20I centuries.
• Tim Southee is one of only four players with over 100 T20I wickets; his current tally of 114 put him in third for most T20I wickets.

Captain: Kane Williamson

In many ways Williamson isn’t so much the captain of New Zealand as he is New Zealand.

In addition to being the team’s most important batsman, he’s also the man who sets the tone and determines the way New Zealand want to play. Hard, attacking, aggressive cricket but always with fairplay and respect for the game and their opponents.

Williamson has often been seen as a player not especially suited to T20 cricket as he’s not a big-hitter but his record paints a different picture.

His strike rate is a respectable 123 in T20Is and he averages 32; he’s scored 14 fifties in T20Is and 41 in domestic T20s, including a century.

His captaincy skills are much admired and he led the Sunrisers Hyderabad to an IPL final when regular skipper David Warner was suspended.

There is however an ongoing concern that his troublesome elbow may increasingly keep him out of matches, as has happened a fair few times over the last two years.

New Zealand will certainly hope that isn’t the case because they’re just not the same side without him.

He played a blinding innings in defeat in last year’s World Cup final with an uncharacteristically aggressive 85 off 48.