New Zealand to add to England misery with Twenty20 victory

Following a heartbreaking loss to India on Sunday in the ICC Champions Trophy England return to action Tuesday in a Twenty20 series against New Zealand. Can England gain a morale boosting victory ahead of the Ashes or will the Black Caps emerge victorious?

With the series just having two games bookmakers are making the draw the favourite at evens (SKYBET/ladbrokes) while an England series victory is 23/10 (paddy Power) and a New Zealand series victory is 7/2 (BETVICTOR/STAN JAMES). In terms of the correct score market bookmakers make the 1-1 draw 10/11 (boylesports) while a 2-0 England win is 2/1 (boylesports) and a 2-0 New Zealand victory is priced at 15/4 (bet365).

Both matches in the series are taking place at the Oval where England have won three and lost three of their six previous Twenty20 games. The opener is on Tuesday with the second game Thursday evening.

In terms of form neither side are playing so well with England having tasted five defeats in their last nine games in this format. The Black Caps have won five of their last seven T20 games though four of these wins came against Zimbabwe. If you take those games out they have lost three of their last four T20 matches.

The head-to-head record favours England who beat New Zealand 2-1 in a T20 series in February and have won four of the last five meetings between the sides in this format.

Bookmakers make England the 4/5 (paddy Power/ladbrokes) favourites for the game while New Zealand are 10/9 (888 SPORT). I think the visitors look the best value as they have their strongest side while England are missing a number of key players.

Alex Hales and Michael Lumb are at the head of the betting to be top England batsman and both are available at 7/2 (GENERAL). Hales is in poor form at county level and looks a bad bet. Lumb looks a lot more value as he has hit two half centuries in his last four bats for England and is in solid country form. Eoin Morgan is a 5/1 (BETVICTOR) chance and he is always a danger at this level having hitting four 30 plus scores in his last seven games in this format. It is Ravi Bopara though who gets the nod at 7/1 (GENERAL) as he showed good form with the bat in the ICC Champions Trophy and produced some good knocks in this form of the game for the Dolphins earlier this season in the Twenty20 league in South Africa.

Martin Guptill is likely the man to finish top New Zealand batsman as he dominated the one day series between these two with the bat and is a 3/1 (GENERAL) chance. Brendon McCullum is 7/2 (betfred) second favourite ahead of Hamish Rutherford who is a 4/1 (sportingbet/ladbrokes) chance while Ross Taylor is 9/2 (ladbrokes).

Mitchell McClenaghan has been impressive with the ball this summer and was the joint top wicket taker in the Champions Trophy (along with James Anderson) and is 3/1 (paddy power) to be the top New Zealand bowler in the game. I think it might be worth a little interest on Ronnie Hira in this market as England struggle to deal with a good quality spinner. Hira can be backed at 19/4 (888 SPORT).

BEST OF THE BETS

GOLD: New Zealand to beat England in opening T20, 10/9 (888 SPORT)
SILVER: Ravi Bopara top England batsman in opening T20, 7/1 (GENERAL)
BRONZE: Ronnie Hira to be Top New Zealand bowler in game 1, 19/4 (888 SPORT)

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01/07/2013     © Frixo 2026