Pakistan will face New Zealand in the second ODI of the three game series at Abu Dhabi today. And with the Pakistanis having won the first game rather convincingly, it will be interesting to see how the Kiwis bounce back in this game.
The New Zealand side would have felt the absence of a coach. But more importantly, they would have been hit by Kyle Mills’ absence who is a good bowler in the death overs. In the company of Shane Bond, he would have been quite a handful, and could have restricted the Kiwis down to a manageable total. As it turned out, the target of 288 proved to be too much for the rather inexperienced New Zealand batting.
The Kiwis will need their top order to fire. Most importantly, they need to have their opening pair of Brendon McCullum and Aaron Redmond to fire. Jesse Ryder’s injury has made it difficult for McCullum, who has been out of form himself and he will need to lift himself up for the game. The other option would be to open with Martin Guptill and have McCullum go down the order to take the advantage of the batting powerplay.
For now, the odds of 1.54 for a Pakistani win at Stan James as compared to 2.75 that totesport offers makes perfect sense. It is difficult to see a surprise in this game. The Kiwis may provide an improved performance, but will need a lot of luck to actually win the game.