England vs New Zealand at Chester-le-Street weather update, World Cup 2019: The semi-finalists are yet not confirmed with at least two spots still up for grabs. Those in contention are battling for points. Although, in the final scheme of things, the Net Run Rate (NRR) might also figure. In this scenario, the England vs New Zealand game is all-important for the fortunes of both teams.
For England, it will be a must-win game if they are to seal their spot in the semi-finals and keep Pakistan out of contention. For New Zealand, the game will be important so as to avoid a freak accident in which they might lose badly here and get trumped by Pakistan or Bangladesh over NRR after being tied on points. That, however, is a near-impossible scenario considering the humongous difference in both team’s NRR.
The pressure will be squarely on England while New Zealand will look to shake off the rust in much of their batting order which seems to be relying overwhelmingly on Kane Williamson’s heroics. When Williamson couldn’t score much, New Zealand had no chance of fulfilling the chase against Australia, eventually losing the game by 86 runs.
A telling sign of New Zealand’s batting woes has been the fact that in largely batting-friendly conditions, they haven’t managed to put up a first innings score of 300 even once. Their campaign so far has largely been the Williamson-Trent Boult show with others in the bowling order and the all-rounders, Jimmy Neesham and Colin de Grandhomme chipping in occasionally. However, this won’t be a match where they can scrape through, for England are likely to fire on all cylinders after their convincing win over India in Edgbaston.
The weather forecast at Chester-le-Street according to Accuweather suggests that there might be some chance of rain, though majorly, we can still expect a sunny day with typically balmy English summer weather. Some cloud cover is expected but not for long. All in all, these will most likely be batting-friendly conditions but with one of the contesting teams being New Zealand, one should not be surprised if Kane Williamson wins the toss and opts to bowl first.
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