🏏 World Cup: Match #35: New Zealand vs Pakistan 🏏DT Note: 67

A crucial match of the interesting competition is set to be held between Pakistan and New Zealand today, Both the teams have struggled in the World Cup and a victory will boost their chances of entering the semi-finals. From here on, the competition will be tough!!

🏏 Cricket World Cup 2023: Match #35: New Zealand vs Pakistan 🏏

New Zealand vs Pakistan is one of the games with extremely high stakes left in the league stage of the World Cup.

Till some days ago, it looked like the four semi-finalists were locked in, with New Zealand in there and Pakistan just out. Things have changed since.

At the mid-stage of the 2023 World Cup, the top four seem to be set to New Zealand ruling the charts alongside hosts India while Pakistan was falling out of the reckoning for a place in the semis.

A fortnight later, as the league stage entered its final phase, Pakistan suddenly sprung back into contention with a win against Bangladesh, snapping their four-matching streak with other factors going their way as well while New Zealand started to wobble, losing their last three games to stand on the edge of dropping out of the top four.

The Chinnaswamy match hence holds utmost importance for the two sides in deciding their semifinal fate amid unlikely pressure from Afghanistan, who secured their fourth win on Friday, against the Netherlands.

The toss will play a vital role today as the Bengaluru weather forecast shows chances of rainfall in the second half of the match.

The showpiece tournament has witnessed nine clashes between the two sides with Pakistan, once again, leading the rivalry with seven wins and two losses.

New Zealand have lost four of their last five matches against Pakistan in their bilateral series earlier this year away from home. The Blackcaps had only won the final tie of that series.

Tag Credit: Sutapasima

The turn for the worse for New Zealand has been dramatic. After four wins on the trot at the start of the league stage, form has fallen by the wayside, and defeats (three in a row) and player injuries have mounted.

As a few number of their players are nursing injuries at the moment - though they trained in Bengaluru on the eve of this game - a couple more results not going their way could mean New Zealand dropping out of the top four.

At the start, they thrashed England - who didn't? - before going on to beat Netherlands, Bangladesh and Afghanistan with performances that were solid rather than spectacular.

New Zealand's lack of genuine star power, particularly in the absence of Kane Williamson, was shown up in defeats against India and Australia, neither of them by a big margin.

The only truly poor showing came against South Africa, a 190-run drubbing denting their net run rate and keeping Pakistan interested.

Shaheen Shah Afridi is now the tournament's joint-second-highest wicket-taker, and while he was primarily taking his wickets at the death, some new-ball scalps did come his way against Bangladesh.

Fakhar Zaman, dropped for his own good after he had lost form and confidence, came back and looked like his vintage self against Bangladesh, hitting seven sixes as he punished both pace and spin with the kind of reckless abandon that made him stand out in Pakistan's top order.

And Mohammad Wasim found prodigious reverse swing at the death.

Today, in this match, New Zealand will try to cling to what they have, while Pakistan will try and snatch it away from them. This World Cup has not had enough close games, but a tense scrap for fourth place could well bring it on.

New Zealand (possible): 1 Devon Conway, 2 Will Young, 3 Rachin Ravindra, 4 Daryl Mitchell, 5 Tom Latham (capt & wk), 6 Glenn Phillips, 7 Mitchell Santner, 8 James Neesham, 9 Kyle Jamieson, 10 Tim Southee/Lockie Ferguson, 11 Trent Boult

Fakhar's return to form means he will keep his spot at the top of the order, and while Agha Salman was not required with either bat or ball against Bangladesh, he is expected to keep his place ahead of Nawaz.

Pakistan (probable): 1 Abdullah Shafique, 2 Fakhar Zaman, 3 Babar Azam (capt), 4 Mohammad Rizwan (wk), 5 Saud Shakeel, 6 Iftikhar Ahmed, 7 Agha Salman, 8 Shadab Khan/Mohammad Nawaz, 9 Mohammad Wasim, 10 Shaheen Shah Afridi, 11 Haris Rauf

Pitch and conditions

The weather for the first half of this morning game looks clear, but gloomier skies lie in wait later. There's a high chance that the second half of this game will impacted by rain, which could make the toss vital.

Stats and trivia

• Boult is one wicket away from becoming the first New Zealander to take 50 ODI World Cup wickets. Tim Southee is the joint second-highest, tied on 36 with Jacob Oram and Daniel Vettori.

• Pakistan have lost their last six tosses against New Zealand at ODI World Cups, but gone on to win five of those games. Overall, they have won seven of nine games against New Zealand at ODI World Cups, losing in 1983 and 2011

• Earlier this tournament, Babar overtook Imran Khan's runs tally at ODI World Cups. He needs 11 more to surpass Ramiz Raja, and 28 to overtake Inzamam-ul-Haq, which will place him behind only Javed Miandad and Saeed Anwar.

Thanks for the tag Madhu.

Battle for 3rd and 4th spots. Who has enough fuel to pull it through and who will succumb to pressure? Let us see.

Should be very interesting last few matches.

Cheers..

Form guide

New Zealand LLLWW (last five completed matches, most recent first)

Pakistan WLLLL

New Zealand's campaign derailed with a spate of injuries to key players - starting with Kane Williamson's broken thumb in the very game he made his international comeback after ACL recovery. Their bowling camp is severely wounded, and the latest to join the injury bench is Matt Henry, who has now been ruled out with a right hamstring grade two tear and replaced by Kyle Jamieson.

Fortunately for them, though, the trio of Lockie Ferguson (Achilles), Jimmy Neesham (bruised wrist), and their regular captain all proactively participated in the 100 minutes of practice the weather allowed them ahead of what could be a decisive clash.

In a do-or-die scenario, it was business as usual for Pakistan in their three hours of nets. "The one thing that amazes me, and it's amazed me so much with the Pakistan players, is generally how calm they are," Arthur said ahead of the game.

"It's like, I'm a cat on a hot tin roof, the players are just really calm. They kind of take it in their stride. And that's the feeling I got before the Bangladesh game. And it's certainly the feeling I'm getting right now. So, yeah, we're in a decent place."

Thank you for the tag 🖤💚

Don't forget to submit your predictions for match 35.

Toss prediction before 10:00 AM IST and rest of the predictions before 10:30 AM IST.

All the very best to everyone!

Tag Credit: Sutapasima

What to expect: Rain threat looms large, especially for the second half on game day. The pitch sported patchy grass spots and looked drier. The venue has witnessed two contrasting games, with Australia comfortably posting 350+ while England's Bazball ship capsized to hand Sri Lanka easy two points. Pacers (23 wickets) have enjoyed the conditions here far better than spinners (6) in the two games thus far.

Teams Watch

New Zealand

Jamieson, who has already spent some time in India with the World Cup squad as training cover, arrived in Bengaluru on Thursday and practiced on the eve of the contest. He may have to wait for a game though given Lockie Ferguson has pulled up fit and seems set to walk back into the XI, replacing Henry. Kane Williamson also had a long hit in the nets and will likely return to the XI, in which case Will Young could be making way again.

Tactics & Strategy: Babar Azam's last five ODI scores against New Zealand read 49, 65, 54, 107, 1 which makes him a big threat. However, his middle-overs numbers aren't inspiring in this World Cup. The Pakistan captain has been striking at only 79.24 in the 11-40th over period, and New Zealand would be keen to exploit it to their advantage.