New Zealand vs Australia 2021, 4th T20I: Match Preview And Prediction

On Friday (5th March), the hosts New Zealand will take on the visitors Australia in the fourth game of the five-match T20I series at Westpac Stadium (Wellington).

Currently, the home team New Zealand is leading this series by a 2-1 margin with two matches to go. The hosts won the first two games of this series by 53 runs and 4 runs respectively. In the third game of this series, Australia claimed a 64-run victory.

New Zealand vs Australia 2021, 4th T20I: Match Preview

New Zealand

The hosts New Zealand are currently in very good form. Though they suffered a thrashing defeat in the last game after winning the first two matches of this T20I series, they can come out from this situation very comfortably.

After some long-time bad run, Martin Guptill is now showing confident performances as he scored 97 and 43 runs in the last two games after scoring a duck in this series opener. While Guptil (140 runs) is the leading run-scorer in this T20I series, in-form Devon Conway is the second most run-scorer in this series by scoring 139 runs as his scores in this series are 99*, 2 and 38 runs.

Captain Kane Williamson is not struggling with his bat in back-to-back matches, who scored 53 runs in the second game of this series. James Neesham is also very consistent as an all-rounder as he is putting crucial impact in both roles.

Leg-spinner Ish Sodhi has picked up 7 wickets in three matches while Mitchell Santner, who missed the last game, has got 5 wickets in two games. Also, the right-arm pacer Tim Southee has taken 4 wickets in this series.

Full Squad

Kane Williamson (C), Hamish Bennett, Trent Boult, Mark Chapman, Devon Conway, Martin Guptill, Kyle Jamieson, Jimmy Neesham, Glenn Phillips, Mitchell Santner, Tim Seifert (wk), Ish Sodhi, Tim Southee

Recent T20I form (oldest to latest): Won, Lost, Won, Won and Lost

Australia

After starting this T20I series with two consecutive defeats, the visitors Australia finally managed to claim a big victory that can boost their confidence.

Captain Aaron Finch (69 off 44 balls) and Glenn Maxwell (70 off 31 balls) played superbly in the last game and they now have to continue this form further. Youngster Josh Philippe has highly impressed in this series by scoring 45 and 43 runs respectively after scoring 2 runs on his T20I debut. Mitchell Marsh (45 runs in the 1st game), Marcus Stoinis (78 off 37 balls in the 2nd match) and Daniel Sams (41 off 15 balls in the 2nd match) have also played one good knocks each in this series when the other Australian batsmen were struggling deeply.

In the last game, left-arm spinner Ashton Agar became the first non-Asian bowler to claim a 6-wicket haul in T20I history as it was the fifth-best T20I bowling figures (6/30). Also, Kane Richardson has got 4 wickets in three matches while Daniel Sams has taken 3 wickets in two matches.

Full Squad

Aaron Finch (C), Ashton Agar, Jason Behrendorff, Mitchell Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Ben McDermott, Riley Meredith, Josh Philippe, Kane Richardson, Daniel Sams, Tanveer Sangha, D’Arcy Short, Marcus Stoinis, Ashton Turner, Andrew Tye, Matthew Wade, Adam Zampa.

Recent T20I form (oldest to latest): Lost, Won, Lost, Lost and Won

New Zealand vs Australia 2021, 4th T20I: Match Prediction

New Zealand are in very good form as the hosts while the visitors Australia still have to prove their consistency in T20 cricket despite managing a thrashing victory in the previous match.

While the Blackcaps are still favourite for the upcoming match, Aussies also have the abilities to equal this series.