New Zealand will play Pakistan in the first semi final of the Men’s T20 World Cup 2022 on November 9, 2022 at the iconic Sydney cricket ground. The contest would start at local time and IST. There is no prediction for the rain as well so the match would be played without any interruption.
New Zealand: Kane Williamson (c), Tim Southee, Ish Sodhi, Mitchell Santner, Glenn Phillips, Jimmy Neesham, Daryl Mitchell, Adam Milne, Martin Guptill, Lachlan Ferguson, Devon Conway, Mark Chapman, Michael Bracewell, Trent Boult, Finn Allen.
Pakistan: Babar Azam (c), Shadab Khan, Asif Ali, Haider Ali, Haris Rauf, Iftikhar Ahmed, Khushdil Shah, Mohammad Hasnain, Mohammad Nawaz, Mohammad Rizwan, Mohammad Wasim, Naseem Shah, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Shan Masood, Usman Qadir
The New Zealand had a bomb start to their World Cup campaign and now it has been confirmed that they’ll play the semi-final. New Zealand is one of the most consistent teams with respect to performance in the ICC events. Since 2015, they have qualified for the semi final in every ICC event. They won their first match against Australia with a big margin and due to that they had a great Run rate while their second game against Afghanistan got washed out. The New Zealand team is full of capable players. Their captain, Williamson, although there have been some criticism of his recent performance especially in the T20I format scored a half century in the recent match against Ireland.
Jimmy Neesham is an underdog for this match while Daryl Mitchell is another man who can bat magnificently while Finn Allen, who replaced Guptil in the playing 11, played a ferocious innings of 42 runs on just 16 balls against He is proving to be a great aggressive opener. Devon Conway showcased his class in the match against Australia and scored 92 unbeaten runs on 58 balls and earned the MoM award. On the other hand, Glenn Philips scored an extravagant century against Sri Lanka. He proved to be a fine batsman who is a great fielder too. In pace bowling, they have the likes of Trent Boult, who needs no introduction at all, Lockie Ferguson, the pace gun and Tim Southee. All these pace bowlers will be crucial for New Zealand as everyone is aware of the fact that Australian pitches favour the pacers but Santner and Ish Sodhi will be crucial for this match as the Sydney cricket ground has spin friendly conditions.
This tournament has been a roller coaster ride for Pakistan. First they lost a nail biting contest to India and then against Zimbabwe. A loss which almost shattered the dreams of the Pakistani team to reach the semi final stage. But then they made a comeback and defeated the unbeaten South African team.
There have been ups and downs in the performance of the Pakistani team in previous few matches. There were questions raised on the performance of the team especially Babar Azam who has only 39 runs in the 5 matches he played in this world Cup. Meanwhile seems like Muhammad Rizwan has lost his track as well as there have been some criticism on his current performance. Frankly speaking, the middle order has been quite impressive throughout the tournament. We have seen Iftikhar scoring fifties, one against India and second against South Africa while Shadab has been quite brilliant as well, both with ball and bat. Muhammad Nawaz like other Pakistani players, seems like he has lost his form, which isn’t a good omen for Pakistan and he needs to perform for his team. With the return of Shaheen Afridi in the team, the pace bowling department of the Pakistani team has become more lethal. He has regained his form as well as he was able to take 4 wickets in the recent quarter final match against Bangladesh. Haris Rauf, Naseem Shah and Muhammad Wasim, all these bowlers can easily bowl above 140kph.
Prediction of NZ vs PAK 1st Semi-Final
It’s a tough call to predict the winner of this match but the New Zealand team has been consistent with their performance. Their players are in form these days but defeating Pakistan wouldn’t be an easy task. The Pakistani team are the underdog for this match. They could very well win this match as they did so just before the World Cup in the Tri Series.
Further Details about NZ vs PAK 1st Semi-Final
The 1st Semi-final of the Men’s T20 World Cup 2022 would be hosted by the Sydney cricket ground in Sydney, Australia which was opened in 1854.
It has the capacity of 48000 people to fit inside. The first international match hosted by this stadium was a test match that was played between England and Australia in 1882. The stadium will host 7 matches of the Men’s T20 World Cup in total. The pitch here is a little bit flat and is a good batting pitch.
Talking about the stats, 12 T20I matches have been played here thus far and the team bowling first has won 5 while the team batting first has won 6. The average 1st inning score is 160 while for the 2nd inning it’s 140. We can conclude that team batting first has more chances of winning. The highest total recorded here is 221 that was by Australia against England.
Sydney is known to be a good batting pitch. It doesn’t offer too much bounce but the spinners get the advantage here and could trouble the batters. 161 ODI matches have been played in this Stadium up to now and 91 were won by the team batting first while 63 by the team batting second. In the ODI format, team batting 1st gets the advantage here.
The last Men’s T20 World was won by Australia in 2021. They are the current trophy holders. The New Zealand team was the runner up of that World Cup as they lost to Australia in the final. The 2021 T20 World Cup was held in UAE. The first semi-final of the 2021 T20 World cup was played between England and New Zealand on 10 Nov 2021 and the 2nd semi-final was played between Pakistan and Australia on 11 Nov 2021.
India was supposed to host the 2021 T20 World cup but couldn’t do so due to the increasing number of COVID-19 cases in the country and there was fear that the tournament might get affected by it. So they shifted it to the UAE.
How to watch 1st Semi-Final ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2022
Stars Sports won the Broadcasting rights for Livestreaming of the Men’s T20 World Cup 2022 while Hotstar and Disney had the online streaming rights in India and its neighbouring countries (Nepal, Bhutan, Maldives, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka). Star Sports arranged alternative broadcasters in the country where these two can’t provide services.
While in India Star Sports and Disney will manage the streaming and in Pakistan, the matches will be live streamed by PTV Sports, Geo Sports, Ten Sports, BSports, Jazz TV and Tapmad.
In New Zealand and England, you can see the T20 World Cup on Sky Sports. In the Caribbean, the job will be done by ESPN and Flow Sports and in the Middle East and North Africa, it’ll be live streamed by OSN cricket HD.In Australia, Fox Sports and Yupp TV will be responsible for the live streaming of the contests while in the USA, Willow TV and YuppTV will manage the live streaming. Different regions have different broadcasters.
How to watch the semi-finals
The ICC Men’s T20 World Cup is underway and the semi-finals are upon us. Here’s how you can watch all the action live.
The first semi-final will see India take on New Zealand at Old Trafford in Manchester on Tuesday, 16 July. The second semi-final will be played between England and Australia at Edgbaston in Birmingham on Wednesday, 17 July.
Both matches will start at 2:30pm BST and will be broadcast live on Sky Sports Cricket in the UK. In India, Star Sports 1 and Star Sports Select 2 will show both semi-finals live.
If you’re not able to catch the action live, then you can always follow our live blog coverage on ESPNcricinfo. We’ll be bringing you all the latest updates, analysis and reaction from both matches.
What to expect in the semi-finals
The first semi-final of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup will see India take on England at the Sydney Cricket Ground. The winner of this match will progress to the final, where they will face either Pakistan or Australia.
England qualified for the semi-finals by finishing in second place in Group 1 behind Pakistan. They lost their opening match against Bangladesh but recovered to win their next four games, including a victory over New Zealand in their final group game.
India qualified for the semi-finals as winners of Group 2. They won all five of their group games, including a comfortable victory over arch-rivals Pakistan in their final match.
This will be the first time these two teams have met in a T20 World Cup match. In fact, they have only played each other twice before in T20I cricket, with India winning both matches.
The winner of this semi-final will go on to face either Pakistan or Australia in the final at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Sunday 15th November.
