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Match Details
Date: November 5, 2021
Time: 3:30 PM IST
Venue: Sharjah Cricket Stadium
Preview:
New Zealand and Namibia will go head to head in the Super 12 Round of the ICC Men's T20 World Cup at the Sharjah Stadium on November 5. While Namibia could be very proud of their performance in the competition and their journey so far, this is the Kiwi's chance to lose as they will start the match as runaway favourites as a win alone in the remaining games would be enough for them to progress to the semifinals. Namibia has been one of the big positives as far as world cricket is concerned but in Blackcaps, they seemingly have an insurmountable mountain in front of them. Can they pull an upset or will the story unfold along expected lines? We shall find out on November 5.
Head-to-head:
The two teams are yet to play a game against each other in T20Is.
Pitch Report:
Not the best of the pitch for batters looking to play strokes and are almost tempted to do so given the shorter boundaries. However, the slow nature of the surface hasn't allowed that and the pacers are always there if they manage to hit the hard length which is not too full and neither too short. Make no mistake, pace on the ball and it it is in the slow and the ball may still travel many yards. The spinners are also in the game and a score of around 150-160 could be a par total at this venue, anything more and those are bonus runs.
Team Analysis:
New Zealand: The Kiwis have more or less a settled unit. In each match they have played so far, they have managed to put up a fight which has been their biggest takeaway. While they did end up losing a game against Pakistan, they were in the match for a good part of it. They then outplayed India and despite losing three early wickets against Scotland managed to hand them a comfortable defeat in the end. Against Namibia, the BlackCaps would want to sort out the batting mini-collapse that happened the other day and put their best foot forward.
Namibia: For Namibia, their best bet is to try and restrict the Kiwis to as low a score as possible. Their bowling has been the stronger of the two departments and especially against strong sides it is usually the batters who tend to struggle against some of the world-renowned bowlers. If somehow Jan Frylinck and Ruben Trumpelmann get the better of the Kiwi batters and control the opposition innings, this could be an interesting game and Nambia's best chance to pull a might opponent down.
Squads:
New Zealand: Martin Guptill, Daryl Mitchell, Kane Williamson (c), Devon Conway (wk), James Neesham, Glenn Phillips, Mitchell Santner, Adam Milne, Tim Southee, Ish Sodhi, Trent Boult, Todd Astle, Kyle Jamieson, Tim Seifert, Mark Chapman
Namibia: Stephan Baard, Michael van Lingen, Craig Williams, Gerhard Erasmus (c), David Wiese, JJ Smit, Jan Nicol Loftie-Eaton, Ruben Trumpelmann, Zane Green (wk), Jan Frylinck, Ben Shikongo, Michau du Preez, Karl Birkenstock, Pikky Ya France, Bernard Scholtz
Match Prediction:
Conclusion:
New Zealand should be able to clinch the win in this game. This is because they have been one of the better all-format teams in recent times, having reached the finals of the ODI World Cup in 2019, they then went on to win the ICC World Test Championship and have beaten India in the Super 12 rounds to become the favourites to qualify for the semifinals from Group 2. Namibia have been good but have a while to go to match the Kiwis.
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