New Delhi:
England shall be locking horns against New Zealand in a Group A encounter of the Champions Trophy at Cardiff, Wales on Tuesday. Hosts England had beaten Bangladesh comprehensively in the tournament opener at Oval on June 1.
England is currently topping Group A with two points in their kitty. Meanwhile, New Zealand could garner just one point from their rain-hit encounter against Trans-Tasman rivals Australia.
England chased down an imposing 300 plus run target courtesy their batting lynchpin Joe Root scoring his tenth ODI century. Opener Alex Hales made a handsome contribution with a scintillating 95 run knock and captain Eoin Morgan chipped in with a quickfire 75 runs to power England's chase.
On the other hand, New Zealand would consider themselves a touch unlucky as they were in a commanding position to the beat the Australians in their opener before rain played spoilsport.
New Zealand put up an imposing 291 run target courtesy a century by Kane Williamson and a whirlwind 65 run-knock by Luke Ronchi. The Kiwi seamer then bowled with a lot of pace and venom, decimating the Australian top order with three quick wickets. The Australians were reeling at 57 for 3 before rain halted any further play. Meanwhile, the Australia Bangladesh game on Monday was also got washed away owing to continuous spells of rain.
Likely Playing Eleven
England 1 Jason Roy, 2 Alex Hales, 3 Joe Root, 4 Eoin Morgan (capt), 5 Ben Stokes, 6 Jos Buttler (wk), 7 Moeen Ali, 8 Liam Plunkett, 9 David Willey/Jake Ball, 10 Steven Finn, 11 Mark Wood
New Zealand is expected to name an unchanged XI with faith shown in Broom at No. 5 and Jeetan Patel likely to be kept out of the side.
New Zealand 1 Martin Guptill, 2 Luke Ronchi (wk), 3 Kane Williamson (capt), 4 Ross Taylor, 5 Neil Broom, 6 James Neesham 7 Corey Anderson, 8 Mitchell Santner, 9 Adam Milne, 10 Tim Southee, 11 Trent Boult
In 50-over world tournaments (World Cup and Champions Trophy), New Zealand have won six of their last seven matches against England. However, their only defeat in that time came in the 2013 Champions Trophy, which was also in Cardiff, the venue for Tuesday's match.
So it is all set for thrilling encounter between two powerhouses of ODI cricket at Cardiff.
