NZ vs NL 6th Match Prediction

NZ vs NL Team Previews

New Zealand

New Zealand wasn’t in the best of forms before the start of this World Cup as it faced a series of losses against India and England. The team was also grappling with injuries affecting its key players like Kane Williamson, Lockie Ferguson, and Tim Southee.

However, the Black Caps brought up their A game in the inaugural game against England on Thursday to score a thumping win.

Matt Henry, who joined Trent Boult in the new-ball attack in the absence of Tim Southee, was in brilliant form as he picked up 3 wickets. He was well-supported by Boult at the other end, who kept up the pressure by drying up the runs.

The spinners picked up 5 wickets between them and they are likely to play yet another important role in this match as the pitch in Hyderabad does offer assistance to the slower bowlers. New Zealand stole the thunder with their explosive batting on Thursday as Devon Conway and Rachin Ravindra were in a belligerent mood.

Both scored individual centuries to put up an unbeaten 273-run partnership, which is the highest for New Zealand in a World Cup match.

The Black Caps are a bit short on experience in the middle order, especially in the absence of Williamson. However, all-rounders James Neesham and Mitchell Santner do provide depth to the batting. 

New Zealand seems content to go into games with three bowlers and fill the rest with part-timers. That worked against England and should not be an issue against the Netherlands but will need some looking at later in the World Cup. 

Netherlands

While the Netherlands did lose their opening fixture against Pakistan, there are plenty of positives that the team will take from that match. Bas de Leede was in brilliant all-round form, picking up 4 wickets and also scoring 67 runs. He will once again be the key player for his team in this match.

In addition to Leede, the Netherlands has another quality seamer in the form of Logan van Beek, who is likely to start with the new ball with Paul van Meekeren. The spin attack consists of Aryan Dutt, Roelof van der Merwe, and Colin Ackermann.

They did a decent job in the match against Pakistan but more will be expected from them.

Coming to the batting, Vikramjit Singh scored a gritty half-century against Pakistan and provided good support to Bas De Leede as the duo put up 70 runs for the 3rd wicket. However, the team will need a better effort from players like Max O’Dowd, Scott Edwards, and Teja Nidamanuru if they want to reach a respectable total. 

The Netherlands played very respectably against Pakistan but the fact of the matter is that they are nowhere near the level of the other 9 teams in this World Cup. It would require something truly remarkable for the Netherlands to be able to push New Zealand and come close to winning this match.