New Zealand will be confident of opening its World Cup campaign with a win over Sri Lanka.
The Black Caps head into their first World Cup as one of the favourites rather than being the quintessential dark horse, and will be backing themselves to defeat a lacklustre Sri Lanka side on home soil.
New Zealand made light work of Sri Lanka in their recent ODI series, and the visitors have traditionally struggled in World Cup’s outside of the subcontinent.
Sri Lanka will rely heavily on its batting trio of Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardene and Tillakaratne Dilshan, but it’s middle order continues to disappoint.
Meanwhile, the Kiwi batting order has never looked so deep with the likes of Brendon McCullum, Martin Guptill, Kane Williamson, Ross Taylor and Tim Southee.
New Zealand comprehensively defeated South Africa in a World Cup warm-up match at the same ground recently and it’s hard to see them losing here.
But can they deal with the pressure?
Tune in to find out!
SQUADS:
NEW ZEALAND: BRENDON MCCULLUM (c & wk), TRENT BOULT, GRANT ELLIOT, TOM LATHAM, MARTIN GUPTILL, MITCHELL MCCLENAGHAN, NATHAN MCCULLUM, KYLE MILLS, ADAM MILNE, DANIEL VETTORI, KANE WILLIAMSON, COREY ANDERSON, TIM SOUTHEE, LUKE RONCHI (wk), ROSS TAYLOR
SRI LANKA: ANGELO MATHEWS(c), TILLAKARATNE DILSHAN, KUMAR SANGAKKARA (wk), MAHELA JAYAWARDENE, LAHIRU THIRIMANNE, DINESH CHANDIMAL, DIMUTH KARUNARATNE, EEVAN MENDIS, THISARA PERERA, SURANGA LAKMAL, LASITH MALINGA, NUWAN KULASEKARA, RANGANA HERATH, SACHITHRA SENANAYAKE, DUSHMANTHA CHAMEERA
The Black Caps head into their first World Cup as one of the favourites rather than being the quintessential dark horse, and will be backing themselves to defeat a lacklustre Sri Lanka side on home soil.
New Zealand made light work of Sri Lanka in their recent ODI series, and the visitors have traditionally struggled in World Cup’s outside of the subcontinent.
Sri Lanka will rely heavily on its batting trio of Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardene and Tillakaratne Dilshan, but it’s middle order continues to disappoint.
Meanwhile, the Kiwi batting order has never looked so deep with the likes of Brendon McCullum, Martin Guptill, Kane Williamson, Ross Taylor and Tim Southee.
New Zealand comprehensively defeated South Africa in a World Cup warm-up match at the same ground recently and it’s hard to see them losing here.
But can they deal with the pressure?
Tune in to find out!
SQUADS:
NEW ZEALAND: BRENDON MCCULLUM (c & wk), TRENT BOULT, GRANT ELLIOT, TOM LATHAM, MARTIN GUPTILL, MITCHELL MCCLENAGHAN, NATHAN MCCULLUM, KYLE MILLS, ADAM MILNE, DANIEL VETTORI, KANE WILLIAMSON, COREY ANDERSON, TIM SOUTHEE, LUKE RONCHI (wk), ROSS TAYLOR
SRI LANKA: ANGELO MATHEWS(c), TILLAKARATNE DILSHAN, KUMAR SANGAKKARA (wk), MAHELA JAYAWARDENE, LAHIRU THIRIMANNE, DINESH CHANDIMAL, DIMUTH KARUNARATNE, EEVAN MENDIS, THISARA PERERA, SURANGA LAKMAL, LASITH MALINGA, NUWAN KULASEKARA, RANGANA HERATH, SACHITHRA SENANAYAKE, DUSHMANTHA CHAMEERA
