New Zealand take on Bangladesh in the second World Cup game of the 2011 edition of the tournament. The match will be played at Chepauk in Chennai on February 20 and will be a Group A encounter.
New Zealand go into this game with a hard-fought win over Ireland in the warm-ups after having posted more than 300. Kenya had met West Indies and had them on the mat for a small period at the start of the innings before Ramnaresh Sarwan battled through to a match-winning century.
However, Kenya did defeat Afghanistan and Ireland in the two other warm-ups that had taken place before the teams got down to the sub-continent, making them a side to watch out for.
Interestingly, New Zealand is one of the top teams which has never won a World Cup before. With the kind of form that they had shown in the last 12 months leading up to the tournament, they couldn’t be farther from their dreams of doing so this year. Whitewashes in Bangladesh and India were preceded by a tri-series in Sri Lanka where they had failed to qualify for the final.
The Chennai track was in news during the warm-up game between South Africa and Zimbabwe when both captains complained about the slow nature of the track. Things may just remain the same.
New Zealand go into this game with a hard-fought win over Ireland in the warm-ups after having posted more than 300. Kenya had met West Indies and had them on the mat for a small period at the start of the innings before Ramnaresh Sarwan battled through to a match-winning century.
However, Kenya did defeat Afghanistan and Ireland in the two other warm-ups that had taken place before the teams got down to the sub-continent, making them a side to watch out for.
Interestingly, New Zealand is one of the top teams which has never won a World Cup before. With the kind of form that they had shown in the last 12 months leading up to the tournament, they couldn’t be farther from their dreams of doing so this year. Whitewashes in Bangladesh and India were preceded by a tri-series in Sri Lanka where they had failed to qualify for the final.
The Chennai track was in news during the warm-up game between South Africa and Zimbabwe when both captains complained about the slow nature of the track. Things may just remain the same.
New Zealand v Kenya World Cup Group A at Chennai Live Score here:
New Zealand v Kenya World Cup Group A at Chennai Timings:
The New Zealand v Kenya World Cup game will be a day match and will start from 0400 hours GMT or 0930 hours local time.
The Teams:
Kenya is a top-heavy side with a huge dependence on the pair of Steve Tikolo and Collins Obuya. In the aforementioned three warm-up games, Tikolo has scores of 126 and 15 while Obuya has made 49, 19 and 68. Only wicket-keeper Maurice Ouma got anywhere close to a half century apart from this.
Fortunately for the side, the likes of Seren Waters at the top of the innings and Tanmay Mishra in the middle order can bat and they will look to ensure that the side overcomes its collapses of the past and gets to respectable scores.
It is their pace bowling that will be asked questions with only Thomas Odoyo having any kind of experience with the new ball. Again, Tikolo could add valuable support as far as spin bowling is concerned.
New Zealand have their own woes and the problem is that it isn’t known why they are in such a rut. There are occasions when the batting doesn’t get off the ground and on others when the bowling gets carted around. Unfortunately, there aren’t too many when both, their batting and fielding gets going together.
Martin Guptill’s century against Ireland should help him gain some confidence but one gets the sense that coach John Wright’s decision to push Brendon McCullum down the order has backfired. Since then, he has been moved back to the top but is clearly short on confidence and will need some urgent runs.
Where New Zealand will struggle is their bowling attack as they will look to adjust to the spin-friendly tracks of the sub-continent.
Why watch this match?
The two sides have played only once in World Cup cricket and New Zealand had crushed the Kenyans by 141 runs – in 2007. However, more importantly, they were to meet in the 2003 edition of the tournament in Kenya but the Kiwis had refused to travel to the country because of security concerns. Kenya will look to avenge that embarrassment and the following loss this time.
Players to look out for:
James Franklin has shown enough in recent times to be termed as New Zealand’s main player. Kenya, on the other hand, will need their openers Waters and David Obuya to not lose early wickets.
The New Zealand v Kenya World Cup game will be a day match and will start from 0400 hours GMT or 0930 hours local time.
The Teams:
Kenya is a top-heavy side with a huge dependence on the pair of Steve Tikolo and Collins Obuya. In the aforementioned three warm-up games, Tikolo has scores of 126 and 15 while Obuya has made 49, 19 and 68. Only wicket-keeper Maurice Ouma got anywhere close to a half century apart from this.
Fortunately for the side, the likes of Seren Waters at the top of the innings and Tanmay Mishra in the middle order can bat and they will look to ensure that the side overcomes its collapses of the past and gets to respectable scores.
It is their pace bowling that will be asked questions with only Thomas Odoyo having any kind of experience with the new ball. Again, Tikolo could add valuable support as far as spin bowling is concerned.
New Zealand have their own woes and the problem is that it isn’t known why they are in such a rut. There are occasions when the batting doesn’t get off the ground and on others when the bowling gets carted around. Unfortunately, there aren’t too many when both, their batting and fielding gets going together.
Martin Guptill’s century against Ireland should help him gain some confidence but one gets the sense that coach John Wright’s decision to push Brendon McCullum down the order has backfired. Since then, he has been moved back to the top but is clearly short on confidence and will need some urgent runs.
Where New Zealand will struggle is their bowling attack as they will look to adjust to the spin-friendly tracks of the sub-continent.
Why watch this match?
The two sides have played only once in World Cup cricket and New Zealand had crushed the Kenyans by 141 runs – in 2007. However, more importantly, they were to meet in the 2003 edition of the tournament in Kenya but the Kiwis had refused to travel to the country because of security concerns. Kenya will look to avenge that embarrassment and the following loss this time.
Players to look out for:
James Franklin has shown enough in recent times to be termed as New Zealand’s main player. Kenya, on the other hand, will need their openers Waters and David Obuya to not lose early wickets.
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