ENGLAND FOCUS
Coming into the Champions Trophy as one of the favourites, England’s batting stepped up to the mark in their opening fixture against Bangladesh as they chased down a target of 306 without much of a fuss.
The bowling will be a bit of a concern though, especially with Chris Woakes ruled out of the tournament due to a side strain.
England decided to leave out Adil Rashid in the opening encounter and it won’t be a surprise at all if the leg-spinner comes into the playing eleven for this game.
In the clash between the two sides at the ICC World Cup two years ago, England were thrashed by the Blackcaps, but Eoin Morgan feels that it’s a completely different situation now.
“They were one of the favourites going into the (World Cup) tournament and proved that against us that day in Wellington,” the England skipper said.
“It was sort of men against boys. But I think it’s completely different now, two years down the line. We’ve got a completely new team, pretty much.”
NEW ZEALAND FOCUS
New Zealand began their Champions Trophy campaign with a good performance against Australia and will consider themselves unlucky to have not got the win after the match was abandoned due to rain.
Kane Williamson was in top form in that game as he notched up his ninth ODI century and fast bowler Trent Boult was full of praise for the Blackcaps captain.
“He’s (Williamson) arguably the calmest man alive,” said Boult.
There will be some pressure on the Kiwis as they know that a defeat here will seriously hamper their hopes of reaching the semi-finals.
DATE, TIME, VENUE INFO
Date: Tuesday – June 6, 2017
Time: 13:30 GST, 10:30 local, 09:30 GMT, 15:00 IST, 14:30 PKT
Venue: Sophia Gardens, Cardiff
WHERE TO WATCH, LIVE STREAMING INFO
TV: UAE – OSN Sports Cricket HD
Full coverage on Sport360.com.
CONFIRMED ENGLAND XI: Roy, Hales, Root, Morgan (c), Buttler (wk), Stokes, Ali, Rashid, Plunkett, Ball, Wood.
CONFIRMED NEW ZEALAND XI: Guptill, Ronchi (wk), Williamson (c), Taylor, Broom, Anderson, Neesham, Santner, Milne, Southee, Boult.
SPORT360 MATCH PREDICTION: England go into the match as favourites, but you cannot rule out New Zealand from any contest. The weather could have a say in the match proceedings as well.