Sports Blog 23/06/2015: T20 International Preview - England vs New Zealand, Tuesday 23rd June 201, Tuesday 23rd June 2015

After England’s exhilarating win in the 5th ODI last weekend, New Zealand’s trip to the UK comes to an end with a T20 International at Old Trafford on Tuesday.

Plenty of records were broken over that 5 match series, with England reaching the highest run total for a 5 match-series with 1617, whilst New Zealand broke their own 5-match record with 1534 runs, meaning that combined the two sides broke the 3000 run mark for the first time in history. Expectations are high, then, for Tuesday’s T20 match, with fans hoping the two sides can end this New Zealand tour with a bang worthy of that 5-match fantasy, not a whimper.



The question for England will be can turn they this formidable form into winning material at the Ashes in two weeks’ time. This T20 international against New Zealand is their last chance for a proper run-out before they face the Aussies, and a win on Tuesday will leave England with a nice head of steam going into the first game in Cardiff – even if some of the big hitters in the ODI series will not be featuring in the Ashes squad.

Joe Root was one of England’s stand-outs in the 5-match series, passing a century in the 1st and 4th matches, and grabbing 54 in the 3rd; he sits at a Player Performance spread of 32-26, where a player receives 1 point per run, 10 points per catch, 20 points per wicket and 25 points per stumping, and at 7/2 fixed odds to be the top England batsman. 5th match hero Jonny Bairstow, whose unbeaten 83 helped England clinch the series, is at a Player Performance spread of 28-32, whilst captain Eoin Morgan, who led in style with 50 runs or more in the first 4 matches before a first-ball duck robbed him of the chance in the 5th, is at a Player Performance spread of 30-34.



New Zealand will feel frustrated after not winning the series, with fine performances in the 2nd and 3rd being let down by less than spectacular, by the rest of the series’ standards at least, 5th match. Yet New Zealand’s team is effervescent with star power at the moment, with a couple of players having an astonishing set of ODIs. Ross Taylor was perhaps the standout, scoring a total of 423 runs across the 5-match series, and becoming the first Kiwi to score 1000 ODI runs against England; Taylor is at 9/2 to be New Zealand’s top batsman, and has a Player Performance spread of 28-32.

Zane Williamson was no slouch either; a mild 45 runs in the 1st match was followed by 93 in the 2nd, 118 in the 3rd, 90 in the 4th and 50 in the 5th, seeing him total 396 for the series and become the first player in the calendar year to surpass 1000 runs. Williamson goes into the T20 at 3/1 fixed odds to be the Kiwis top batsman with a Player Performance spread of 32-26.

England may have won the series, but it was a tight affair, leaving the result of this T20 international uncertain. They have a slight advantage over the Black Caps at an England/New Zealand Supremacy sports spread betting quote of 0-8, with England at a 48.7-54.6 spread to win the match against New Zealand’s spread of 45.4-51.3.