World Cup 2019: Another 'must-win' for Pakistan against New Zealand

After a sloppy start at the ICC World Cup 2019, Pakistan is on the verge of being eliminated from the tournament, if they don’t win all of their remaining games.

But what makes their match against New Zealand crucial is if they lose, they would be out of running to reach the knockout stages. Pakistan stands at the seventh position with five points on the points table. This means that if they lose tomorrow’s (June 26) match against the Kiwis, and win their next two games, even then they’ll have only nine points which won’t be at par with the qualifying twelve points.

Also read: Pakistan survive ‘do-or-die’ as World Cup dream ends for Proteas

As for New Zealand, they sit at the top with 11 points and three more matches left including their clash with Pakistan, even if they lose one it won’t make much of a difference for them as they just need one more point to qualify for the semis.

With the Black Caps already reserving a place, it shouldn’t be assumed that they won’t be desperate for a win. The team needs to register a win tomorrow at Edgbaston, Birmingham, which could be an easier battle than their upcoming clashes with Australia and England.

According to the head-to-head stats of the two teams, in World Cup, Pakistan has defeated New Zealand in six out of their eight encounters. The weather seems to be in favour of the matches now, as the predictions are to have a dry pitch and outfield.

It can be assumed that it will be a clash of the pacers from both the teams, however, the key players: Kane Williamson, Trent Boult and Ross Taylor from New Zealand and Imam Ul-Haq, Babar Azam, Wahab Riaz and Mohammad Amir from Pakistan will try to maintain their form and steal the show.

New Zealand: Tom Blundell is likely to make his World Cup debut replacing Tom Latham to power the middle order. Even Henry Nicholls stands a chance for replacing Colin Munro at the top order.

Probable XI: Martin Guptill, Colin Munro / Henry Nicholls, Kane Williamson (c), Ross Taylor,Tom Blundell / Tom Latham (wk), James Neesham, Colin de Grandhomme, Mitchell Santner, Trent Boult, Matt Henry, Lockie Ferguson.

Pakistan: Shaheen Afridi and Haris Sohail will hold their places in the bowling lineup.

Probable XI: Imam-ul-Haq, Fakhar Zaman, Babar Azam, Mohammad Hafeez, Sarfaraz Ahmed (c & wk), Haris Sohail, Imad Wasim, Wahab Riaz, Shadab Khan, Shaheen Afridi and Mohammad Amir.