Ground Reality: Wanderers nicknamed ‘The Bullring’ is the home of the Highveld Lions. The venue for the 2003 cricket World Cup finals, this ground goes down in history as the host of one of the greatest ODI matches when South Africa chased down a colossal target of 434 runs set by Australia. The Wanderers, which has a seating capacity of 34,000, also hosted the first match and the finals of the 2007 Twenty20 World Cup, and more recently the IPL finals.
Pitch Conditions: The wicket seems to have eased up a bit thanks to the amount of cricket that has been played on the surface. The green tinge on the surface has disappeared, and it looks like a sub-continent wicket with true bounce and good carry. The NZ-SL game was a high scoring one, and this game will also be played on the same wicket. So expect another run feast, provided rain doesn’t play spoilsport.
Temperature: Min-11c Max-20c Conditions: Rain likely towards the evening
Team updates:
New Zealand: After an impressive showing against the Lankan Lions, the Kiwis live to die another day. A win today and they are assured of a berth in the semi-final at the expense of Sri Lanka, while England are through irrespective of today’s result. The batting, which has been their main problem since the last year or so, finally clicked with some impressive knocks from Ryder, Guptill and skipper Vettori. McCullum and Taylor who have been a touch inconsistent, would like to rise to the occasion on the big day, if they are to take their side into the final four. They will however be without the services of Jesse Ryder who has been ruled out of the tournament due to a hamstring injury and Aaron Redmond has been flown in as his replacement. The focus in the Kiwi camp has suddenly shifted to their bowling department, with Bond and company struggling to live up to expectations. Daryl Tuffey has been ruled out after he broke a bone during a fielding session, and Ian Butler who is recuperating from an intestinal infection will replace him. Daniel Vettori has been the only shining light with the ball, and they will be looking to fasten their seat belts and come up with a decent showing, if they are to restrict the likes of Shah and Collingwood who seemed to be in super natural form against the Proteas.
England: They have perhaps exceeded their own expectations by qualifying for the semi-finals with a game in hand. So it was no surprise to see the players take a day off from their gruelling calender and relax, with some team bonding sessions, in the build up to this game. The match maybe of no consequence to them, but Strauss will be egging his boys to carry on from where they left off against the Proteas. Owias Shah and Collingwood are the men in form, but the biggest plus so far has been Eoin Morgan, who has come into his own in this series, notching up 2 match winning half centuries. The biggest concern in the English camp seems to be the availability of Matt Prior, more than the batting or the bowling, and that is in itself a positive sign. The only possible change could be the inclusion of Ryan Sidebottom at the expense of Graham Onions. So we can expect an aggressive English side to take the field against the Hungry Kiwis at the ‘Bullring’.
Numbers game:
34:29 – New Zealand can take heart from the fact that the stats picks them as the favourites for today’s game as they’ve more wins than losses against England.
Soundbytes:
Andrew Strauss: Obviously we didn’t expect to be in this position with a game in hand, and I am sure not many of our supporters expected this after we were thrashed at home, but it is a good situation to be in. Perhaps we have surprised ourselves. It’s interesting to note that people have started calling us ‘favourites’ now.
Daniel Vettori: We are happy that at least our fate is in our hands. It is a different feeling altogether knowing that we can qualify if we win hands down, rather than sitting in our hotel rooms and waiting for someone to help us qualify.
Teams:
New Zealand (From): Brendon McCullum(w), Aaron Redmond, Martin Guptill, Ross Taylor, Grant Elliott, Neil Broom, James Franklin, Daniel Vettori(c), Kyle Mills, Ian Butler, Shane Bond, Brendon Diamanti, Gareth Hopkins, Jeetan Patel
England (From): Andrew Strauss(c), Joe Denly, Owais Shah, Paul Collingwood, Eoin Morgan(w), Ravinder Bopara, Luke Wright, Stuart Broad, Graeme Swann, Graham Onions, James Anderson, Matthew Prior, Ryan Sidebottom, Adil Rashid, Tim Bresnan
