CWC 2019 Match 25 – New Zealand vs South Africa Fantasy Preview

If you look at the ICC 2019 World Cup points table, you would say this encounter is a very one-sided one. We’re talking about Match 25 of CWC 2019 where New Zealand play South Africa with one team being unbeaten in 4 games and sitting on top of the table, and the other having a horrible season so far, with 1 win in 5 games and that solitary win coming against Afghanistan, that isn’t the strongest side in the competition. They’re playing at Edgbaston which will see it’s first game of this tournament.

However, let’s throw ourselves back to CWC 2015 where these two sides met and created one of the best games in the history of World Cup cricket. It was the semi-final and New Zealand scraped through in the final over, progressing to meet Australia in the final. While New Zealand start as favourites again, let’s not rule out the Protea Fire. Keep reading for our Playing11 (sign-up to get Rs.50 FREE) fantasy preview of the NZ vs SA match…

Match info

  • Tournament: 2019 ICC World Cup.
  • Date: 19th June 2019, 3:00pm IST
  • Venue: Edgbaston,Birmingham. 
  • Capacity: 24,800+
  • Series status: Match 25 of the round robin stage.
CWC 2019 Match 25 - NZ vs SA Fantasy Preview
Faf du Plessis, right, bats as Luke Ronchi watches in Hamilton, New Zealand, Wednesday, March 1, 2017. (Alan Gibson/NZ Herald via AP)

Form (recent first)

  • NZ: W W W W W
  • SA: W L L L W

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Stats

  • Average 1st innings score here – 227 runs.
  • New Zealand have won 3 of their 10 previous ODIs here.
  • South Africa have won 4 of their previous 8 ODIs here.
  • Kane Williamson has scored 163 runs in 3 ODIs here (1×100).
  • Trent Boult has 5 wickets in 2 previous ODIs here.

New Zealand

There was all the hype around Trent Boult and how his swing bowling in English conditions would threaten every opponent. However, he has only managed 3 wickets in 3 games so far in CWC 2019 and wasn’t too effective at IPL 2019 either. However, he picked 8 wickets in 2 games in the warm-ups. That goes to show that players are playing Boult out respectfully. There’s Tim Southee now who is fit but I would still bench him if I was a part of the NZ management.

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Why? Because both of Matt Henry and Lockie Ferguson have been on wicket-taking sprees, with 7 and 8 wickets in 3 games so far. I’ll pick both these players. In this high-profile clash, you’re going to have to trust the most experienced players to bail you out. With the bat, one of them is Ross Taylor, who has scores of 72 and 48 so far, while Kane Williamson has 79* and 40 so far, so both these can make your fantasy team. Pick James Neesham too and he can be your x-factor player.

South Africa

As for South Africa, they need a little bit of inspiration to get them out of this ditch. With Tom Latham having a best of 13* in 3 games, Quinton de Kock is the automatic wicket-keeper choice. After scores of 13, 6, 6, Hashim Amla hit a little bit of form with 41* against Afghanistan and he’ll be a good pick considering most fantasy teams will choose to skip Amla. Remember, he had two fifties in two warm-up games as well.

With 26 and 25 scalps respectively in IPL 2019, Imran Tahir and Kagiso Rabada were regularly among the wickets and Tahir seems to have continued that here, with 8 wickets. Rabada has been mediocre with 5 wickets but he has 11 wickets in 6 previous ODIs against New Zealand so I’ll pick both these in my Playing11 (sign-up to get Rs.50 FREE) fantasy team. South Africa may consider bringing JP Duminy back into the playing eleven, wile Lungi Ngidi is also set to return, being declared fit to play.

NZ vs SA Betting

My Playing11 fantasy team

CWC 2019 Match 25 - NZ vs SA Fantasy Team


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About Dwayne Fernandes 2314 Articles
Indian, 28 years old. Avid cricket fan. Business Management Graduate. Twitter and Instagram - @dwayneeeboy