Australia overwhelming favourite against New Zealand tomorrow

By Staff
|
Google Oneindia News

Mohali, Oct 31 (UNI) An absorbing battle is on the cards as favourite and World Champion Australia take on traditional rival and tournament dark horse New Zealand in the first semifinal of the Champions Trophy here tomorrow.

''We are desperate to win the Champions trophy, the second biggest cricket event after the World Cup,'' declared Aussie skipper Ricky Ponting before the start of the tournament and he is just two match away to fulfill his dream.But it will be very dangerous for the World champions to underestimate the Kiwis.

Before the start of the tournament, nobody had given New Zealand a chance to make the last four grade but the Kiwis proved cricket pundits wrong with some sterling display to be in contention for the title.

It is going to be an interesting game, this one. Ricky Ponting's men showed in the course of their final Group A league win over India here on Sunday that they are getting to terms with the conditions. This quality was on show from the Kiwis as well, who were impressive winners over Pakistan here.

Hence both teams start more or less on level terms. While Australia suffered a shock defeat at the hands of the West Indies in their very first game, they showed some very typical grit to bounce back with wins, first over England and then India.

The Kiwis started off well with a convincing win over South Africa and then crashed at the hands of Sri Lanka before cruising past Pakistan with an impressive display here.

The Kiwis have won just 26 of those games, against 57 by Australia but it must be said that they have performed better against the Aussies on neutral soil than they have at home - 16 wins against 30 defeats.

But then figures and statistics tend to hold limited relevance.

On current form, Australia clearly hold an edge even though they are not the smoothly-functioning unit one was used to seeing.

Ponting's team needed two supremely confident performances from Damien Martyn to set up both their wins, while the skipper himself got runs for the first time in this tournament off the erratic Indian attack on Sunday.

The bowling, however, is in better hands with the experienced Glenn McGrath being his miserly self and getting good support from the likes of Nathan Bracken and Mitchell Johnson.

More UNI HSB AY DS1355

For Daily Alerts
Get Instant News Updates
Enable
x
Notification Settings X
Time Settings
Done
Clear Notification X
Do you want to clear all the notifications from your inbox?
Settings X
X