New Zealand opt to bowl first in rain-shortened T20I against Australia
Photo: AFP
New Zealand won the toss and chose to bowl in the second T20I against Australia at Mount Maunganui, in a rain-affected match reduced to 18 overs per side.
The team welcomes back Ben Sears from injury, while Ish Sodhi becomes New Zealand’s most capped men’s T20I player, News.Az reports, citing foreign media.
Jimmy Neesham has also been included in the squad for the home side.
Following persistent rain across the day, there were fears of a washout with Australia already 1-0 up. But the clouds parted and the match will start an hour later than scheduled but they will only lose four overs, with the powerplay to be 5.2 overs long in each innings under a new ICC playing condition.
New Zealand made three changes from the side that lost the opening match comfortably. Sears returns from a side injury and replaces Kyle Jamieson. Sodhi has been called in to provide an extra spin option in place of Zak Foulkes while Neesham returns to the XI at No. 7 in place of Bevon Jacobs.
Australia would have bowled on the same surface as game one but will be forced to bat first after the pitch spent all day under covers. Australia made only one change with Sean Abbott called in to replace Ben Dwarshuis who has been rested.
New Zealand: 1 Tim Seifert (wk), 2 Devon Conway, 3 Tim Robinson, 4 Mark Chapman, 5 Daryl Mitchell, 6 Michael Bracewell (capt), 7 Jimmy Neesham 8 Matt Henry, 9 Ben Sears, 10 Ish Sodhi, 11 Jacob Duffy
Australia: 1 Travis Head, 2 Mitchell Marsh (capt), 3 Matt Short, 4 Tim David, 5 Alex Carey (wk), 6 Marcus Stoinis, 7 Mitch Owen, 8 Xavier Bartlett, 9 Sean Abbott, 10 Adam Zampa, 11 Josh Hazlewood
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