CK vs AA Match Preview
The Canterbury Kings side is going into this game with a solid 9-wicket win over the eventual winners of the last season Northern Brave in their last encounter. During the 2021-22 season, Auckland Aces managed to gather 16 points with 4 wins during the league stages of the competition. They missed out on qualification for the playoffs by a margin of 4 points. Canterbury Kings on the other hand came pretty close to winning the trophy last season. They are already off to a great start in this year's competition. Kings have several players on their side that are performing well with both bat and ball already. Auckland Aces were expected to make some changes to their team from last season. These changes have been made but they do have a lot of players from the last year's competition playing this year. The Aces will be looking to get their side to a winning start this season.
Weather Report
You can expect a thick cloud cover during the game tomorrow with a lot of chances of rain coming down during the game. We will get winds in the region of 11 km/hr and there is every possibility that players will perspire during the match. The overcast conditions can assist the fast bowlers on this track which is likely to assist the quicker bowlers anyway.
Pitch Report
The Hagley Oval cricket ground in Christchurch is smallish and has short square boundaries. This is a massive advantage to the batters that are looking to play their shots. Early on in the innings, you will find that there is some assistance for the quicker bowlers. However, this is a challenging surface for the spinners to bowl on. The pitch does not offer a lot of spin and bounce to the bowlers. It is also expected that speedsters from both sides will enjoy these conditions far more than the spinners. But, all-in-all the surface is a great one for batters where the ball will come onto the bat nicely. The team that bats first will have to put on at least 180 runs on the board for feeling safe on the surface.
Notable stats
Canterbury has a much better recent record in the competition.
Canterbury's side is going into this game with a 3-2 winning record in their last 5 matches. Auckland on the other hand has a terrible 1-4 winning record at the moment in recent history.
Chad Bowes has had a good average in recent matches.
Chad Bowes has scored 311 runs from his last 9 innings with an average of 38.87 in T20 cricket for Canterbury. He is their leading batter in this format at least in the recent past.
Team News
This is the first match of the new season for Auckland and so the entire side will be fit and raring to go in this match. No injury worries are reported for the Canterbury side either.
CK vs AA Probable 11
CK Playing 11
- Cole McConchie (C)
- Chad Bowes
- Matthew Boyle
- Leo Carter
- Cam Fletcher (Wk)
- Mitchell Hay
- Henry Shipley
- Angus McKenzie
- Ed Nuttall
- Todd Astle
- Blake Coburn
AA Playing 11
- Robert O'Donnell (C)
- Sean Solia
- Martin Guptill
- Cole Briggs
- Mark Chapman
- Ben Horne (Wk)
- Ryan Harrison
- William Somerville
- Danru Ferns
- Louis Delport
- Ross ter Braak
Dream11 Prediction
Auckland Aces will need to remove the monkey from their backs if they are to deliver some good performances in this edition of Super Smash. Their team members have not been in the best of forms in their last couple of forays in the competition and it adds a lot of pressure to the side. The Canterbury Kings team got off to a terrific start with all their top players doing well in their opening match. In addition to that, they are playing at home and are better accustomed to the conditions than Auckland Aces. This makes the Canterbury Kings the favorite to win this match.
Top Picks
Chad Bowes: Chad Bowes is an opening batter for Canterbury. He was in excellent form in the first game hitting an unbeaten half-century. He hit 2 sixes and 5 fours in the match. the Auckland bowlers will be wary of this batter in this game.
Henry Shipley: Henry Shipley is a 26-year-old right-arm quickie from Canterbury. He was one of the top bowlers for Canterbury in the 2021-22 season of Super Smash. He was straight back among wickets in the first match as he picked up the wickets of Jeet Raval and Tim Seifert for just 5 runs.
Mark Chapman: Mark Chapman is a tiny southpaw from Auckland. He has the knack for keeping the scoreboard ticking for the New Zealand national team. Here he will be utilized more as an attacking batter for Aces.
Martin Guptill: Martin Guptill is an experienced campaigner who lost his place in the kiwi national T20 side earlier this year. However, he has the capability of winning matches on his own which will be handy for the Auckland Aces.
CK vs AA Dream11 Team 1
Keeper: T. Latham
Batters: M. Guptill, M. Chapman, D. Mitchell, C. Bowes
All-rounders: C. McConchie, H. Shipley (C), S. Solia
Bowlers: I. Sodhi, M. Henry, L. Ferguson (VC)
