Explained: Neesham At Eight And Front-Loading Their Overs – How New Zealand Went On The Attack In An Attempt To Tame England

New Zealand sprung a surprise at the toss of the 2023 World Cup opener as stand-in captain Tom Latham unveiled an extremely batting-heavy XI.

The Black Caps had limited options for the match as three of their 15 players (Kane Williamson, Tim Southee and Lockie Ferguson) were unavailable due to injury. Yet, despite the 30-year-old taking 6-39 in an ODI against Bangladesh just two weeks ago, they opted for a more batting eleven of Mark Chapman and Rachin Ravindra, and Ish Sodhi. He preferred the foot spinning of a specialist. .

Chapman finished seventh in the bracket, with all-rounders Jimmy Neesham and Mitchell Santner finishing eighth and ninth. Neesham and Santner competed in the 2019 World Cup finals for sixth and eighth place respectively. England similarly opted for a striking balance, favoring the all-rounder of Sam Curran over left-arm specialist Reece Topley.

New Zealand’s approach means there are only three frontline bowlers – Matt Henry, Trent Boult and Santner – with the remaining 20 overs being played by all-round options Neesham, Ravindra, Chapman and Glenn. -Phillips, Darryl Mitchell should have been in charge. / p>

This combination of bowling options created some interesting early exchanges, with Latham using only the specialist options of Henry, Boult and Santner in the first 15 overs. In addition to an in-form outfield, England reached the 15-over mark with 73 wins and 2 losses, knowing that Henry, Boult and Santner could only bowl 15 of the remaining 35 overs.

It was clear that England were becoming more motivated as their all-rounder came on. Brook hit Neesham’s first ball over the covers for the fourth time before unleashing an onslaught on Ravindra. After bringing Ravindra into the attack, Brook dragged Ravindra into back-to-back quads before long jumping into the stands for a six. England’s number four tried to repeat the same trick in the next match, but found the man at deep midwicket, giving Ravindra an early scalp.

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Due to the left-arm spinner’s performance, England promoted Moeen Ali to number five. Latham responded by changing part-time players, this time introducing off-spinner Glenn Phillips. Moen missed his pull shot, leaving him with 11 outs. England looked to make good use of New Zealand’s substitution options and overcompensated with four fewer wickets in the first 22 overs. However, this particularly aggressive approach to replacement bowlers is an acceptable tactic for England given the depth of their own batsmen, with Woakes and Curran entering the match with his eight and his nine cards respectively. It may have been.

Buttler and Root then rebuilt England’s innings in the middle overs with no problems against the change bowlers, and Latham took another risk. He reintroduced strike bowlers to take important wickets, but at the cost of leaving his team-mates vulnerable at the death. It was another trick that worked, with the returning Henry removing the dangerous and well-set Buttler for 43 and Boult removing Livingstone in the 39th over.

This allowed left-handed Sam Curran to break into the goal crease. Once again Phillips’ part-time off-spinner was back and once again it worked, although perhaps not as expected. Root played a reverse shot but missed and was bowled. New Zealand finally had four overs left against Boult and Henry, and with England’s last pair of wickets remaining on the scoresheet, the world champions needed to outrun the strike to reach 282-9 . His 14 runs from the final over bowled by Neesham showed what could have been if England had more batting power.

The tough decisions from both teams started an interesting cat-and-mouse game with both sides trying to question the other.

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