India vs New Zealand T20 Series 2020 – 5th T20I
Match Information:
India and New Zealand teams are going to play their last T20I of the series at Bay Oval, Mount Maunganui, Tauranga.
This is going to be the fifth series between the teams, but the first series, when India didn’t lose a single match before last encounter of the series, as well, this is first time, when India is undefeated in consecutive four T20Is against New Zealand. Moreover, Before the series, India won just 3 matches out of 12, and during the series, the team never got defeat out of 4 matches, though, two were decided through super over.
Teams faced each other 16 times in T20Is and New Zealand won 8 times, whereas India won 5 times, though the last two matches were resulted into tie, and in which, visitors fetched the super over in favor of the team, and so, undefeated in the series, yet.
Point Table:
Victory will bring the points for both the teams and defeat will decrease their points, but India is on more risk of losing the position, in case of defeat, and the team will come down on 5th position with 262 points, in remaining match, but stay at the same position with 264 points, in case of victory. New Zealand will stay on the 6th position, in case of any result, if win, then with 249 points and if lose, then 245 points..
Weather:
There is partly cloudy weather forecast, during match time, the temperature would pretty normal and precipitation percentage would be very low, and so no rain is expected during match, as of now. The weather would be pretty wind, as expected, and the wind speed would be around 20-25 kmph.
Toss and Pitch:
Teams preferred to field first on the pitch after winning the toss, which was 4 times out of 6, although the decision became boomerang for the teams, and lost the match 3 times out of 4 times, the 4th one was called off without any result. On the other hand, in last two encounters, teams preferred to bat first after winning the toss and the teams won the matches both times. Teams, who won the toss, won match twice only and lost thrice. Teams, with the bat first, won all the completed matches. Particularly for New Zealand, when the team batted first, whether after winning the toss or losing it, never lost a match and when the team fielded first, in the only instance, and lost the match, in the last played T20I on the venue, till date.
Lowest defendable total was 181 on the venue, whereas, there is no any successful chase, yet. The first inning (completed) lowest score was 181, whereas highest was 243, and the second inning lowest total was 124 and highest was 179. Average first inning (completed innings) score is 199, and 156 for the second inning. Batting average for the first inning is 36.57 and for second inning is 19.04, almost half of the first inning batting average.
Team History:
Both the teams never played a single match at the venue. The upcoming match will be the first meeting between the teams.
Venue History:
The home team has excellent record with 4 victories out of 6, and only lost. Moreover, the opening batsman, C. Munro has also excellent record at the venue, who scored 307 runs in five inning with two hundreds, his batting average is 61.4 with strike rate of 193. M. Guptill has also very good record at the venue, and hit 3 half centuries out of 4 plays. I. Sodhi also performed well, while taking 10 wickets with the bowling average of 16.3 and strike rate of just 12.
Tentative XI for both the teams:
New Zealand: The home team would prefer to rest their regular captain for his shoulder injury, due to dead rubber and so might go unchanged.
New Zealand Eleven: C. Munro, M. Guptill, T. Seifert, R. Taylor, T. Bruce, D. Mitchell, M. Santner, S. Kuggeleijn, T. Southee, I. Sodhi, H. Bennett / B. Tickner
India: The visitors may give chance to remaining players, though the team would prefer to go with the winning XI, generally, but may give chance to K. Yadav in place of Y. Chahal R. Pant might get chance. Teams would also prefer to rest V. Kohli and KL Rahul, and in that case, RG Sharma will come back in the team as the skipper. The team might give chance to R. Pant on the slot of V. Kohli, as he had good experience as well as performance on the number 3 position with Delhi Capitals.
Indian Eleven: RG Sharma, S. Samson, R. Pant, S. Iyer, S. Dube, M. Pandey, W. Sundar, K. Yadav,, S. Thakur, N. Saini, J. Bumrah
