For the 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup, Australia is the only team that has been confirmed for the semi-finals. New Zealand, on the other hand, is just a win away from joining them in the final four, after losing their first match of the tournament this week against Pakistan in Birmingham.
Team New Zealand, they have played their opening match on 1 June 2019 at Sophia Gardens, Cardiff, where New Zealand won by 10 wickets. And their second match was held on 5 June 2019 at the Oval, London, where New Zealand won by 2 wickets. The third match of New Zealand was played against Afghanistan, where New Zealand won by seven wickets. The fourth match against India was abandoned due to heavy rain. New Zealand won by 4 wickets in their fifth match against South Africa. Their next match was against West Indies where New Zealand won by 5 runs. In their last match against Pakistan, they lost by 6 wickets.
On the other hand, Team Australia started their opening match on June 1 against Afghanistan in County Ground, Bristol, where Australia won by 7 wickets. The second match of Australia was played on 6 June 2019 against West Indies at Trent Bridge, Nottingham, where Australia won by 15 runs. The third match of Australia was against India where India won by 36 runs. The fourth match of the team was held against Pakistan where Australia won by 41 runs. The fourth match of the team was held against Sri Lanka where Australia won by 87 runs. Australia won by 48 runs against Bangladesh in their fifth match. Their sixth match was against England, where Australia won by 64 runs.
Today’s match is very important for New Zealand if they want to join Australia in the semi-finals. But the team they are going to compete is the consistent winner of World Cup series who has already made their position in this year edition semi-finals and therefore they can’t ignore this fact even for once.
Match Details
- Competing teams: New Zealand vs Australia
- Date: Saturday, June 29
- Venue: Lord’s Cricket Ground, London
- Time: 13:30pm local (6pm IST)
- Weather Condition: Today’s weather condition will be a warm and sunny day with a high of 33 degrees Celsius.
New Zealand Likely XI:
1 Martin Guptill, 2 Colin Munro/Henry Nicholls, 3 Kane Williamson, 4 Ross Taylor, 5 Tom Latham (wk), 6 Jimmy Neesham, 7 Colin de Grandhomme, 8 Mitchell Santner/Ish Sodhi, 9 Matt Henry, 10 Lockie Ferguson, 11 Trent Boult
Australia Likely XI:
1 David Warner, 2 Aaron Finch (capt), 3 Usman Khawaja, 4 Steve Smith, 5 Glenn Maxwell, 6 Marcus Stoinis, 7 Alex Carey (wk), 8 Pat Cummins, 9 Mitchell Starc, 10 Jason Behrendorff, 11 Nathan Lyon
Pitch Conditions
The pitch for Saturday’s match is that one where earlier Australia beat England in this tournament, which on other terms means that there are going to be run on offer. Talking about today’s match, both the teams are going to be pushed harder with the expected warmest day of this year tournament.
Till date, here is the 2019 ICC World Cup 2019 Point table:
| Pos | Team | Pld | W | L | T | NR | Pts | NRR |
| 1 | Australia (Q) | 7 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 12 | 0.906 |
| 2 | India | 6 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 11 | 1.160 |
| 3 | New Zealand | 7 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 11 | 1.028 |
| 4 | England (H) | 7 | 4 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 1.051 |
| 5 | Bangladesh | 7 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 7 | −0.133 |
| 6 | Pakistan | 7 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 7 | −0.976 |
| 7 | Sri Lanka | 7 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 6 | −1.186 |
| 8 | South Africa (E) | 8 | 2 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 5 | −0.080 |
| 9 | West Indies (E) | 7 | 1 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 3 | −0.320 |
| 10 | Afghanistan (E) | 7 | 0 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 | −1.634 |
