New Zealand, looking for the second title of the season, will take upon their trans-Tasman rivals Australia in the final of the ICC men’s T20 World Cup today.
Both New Zealand and Australia-led by Kate Williamson and Aaron Finch respectively- have never won the cup since its beginning in 2007. After managing to win in the tight semi-finals, both teams are expected to put on a great show at the Dubai International Stadium.
Head to Head
Having an incredible 9:5 win ratio, Aussies shows an explicit dominance against New Zealand in the T20s. out of 14 matches- once in the T20 world cup- they played each other in T20 Australia has won 9 of the games, while New Zealand only managed to win 4 matches, and one ended in a tie.
The last time they met in T20 was in the 2016 edition of the T20 world cup hosted in India, where Mitchel McClenaghan with this incredible performance of 3/17, helped New Zealand to seal the win.
Martin Guptill, the only New Zealand player ever to score a double century in ODI, has a great spell against Australia in the T20s. he has scored the most runs (435) in the rivalry, followed by Aaron Finch (251) and Glen Maxwell (206). Ish Sodhi tops the Bowling chart with 13 wickets, with Ashton Agar (13) and Kane Richardson (10) in the line.
In the tournament so far
Despite their loss in the first match against Pakistan, New Zealand has shown great performance and became the favorites for the finals. They bounced back strongly and went to win their four next matches and finished 2nd in group 2.
Analyzing New Zealand’s recent matches, their composure was brilliant and the key to their success is the ability to adapt to any situation. In the first six overs, they will go very hard and middle overs are played according to the situation. With great finishers like Marcus Stoinis and Mathew Wade- both had put a marvelous performance in the last two chases- they are likely to go for a final dash in the last overs.
For bowling, New Zealand has got three brilliant pacers and two excellent spinners, Ish Sodhi and Mitchell Santner, to maintain the runs and to pick wickets up.
Aussies fans have held their trust in David Warner and he has been back on track in the last two games. Nonetheless, he has to make his form even former to expect a win. Despite the fact that Aaron Finch will play really hard on the powerplay overs, if Aussies have to win, Glen Maxwell and Steve Smith have to come up with a good performance, while both had not shown any significant impact in the earlier games.
