It’s not long before two heavyweights of the game take guard at The Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi in a crunch semi final encounter of the T20 World Cup. Former champions and current 50 over World champions England take on New Zealand. So with recent history of this fixture, here is a look on the numbers that make this clash super interesting.
Last time these two teams meet in an ICC tournament, it went down the wire as England reigned supreme in the 2019 World Cup Final. Now that plenty of water has gone underneath the bridge these two lock horn again in the deserts of Abu Dhabi. It will be the nineteenth-time that these two go head to head in an ICC tournament.
As things stand, Eoin Morgan’s side edge New Zealand in the head to head in T20 meetings at the World Cup. The team from British channel has won 3 of the 5 encounters, while New Zealand winning the other two. Last time these two meet at the T20 World Cup, it was another semi final where Jason Roy ran the show with a blistering 78 of 44 balls. New Zealand will be in for revenge this time around.
There is no separating these two when it comes to the 50 over format. Overall in 10 meetings at World Cup it’s all square with 5 wins each. Notably, one of those ten encounters was the final of the 2019 World Cup, where Ben Stokes was enjoying the form of his life and guided England to glory at Lords. However, before the 2019 World Cup, New Zealand had won 5-times in a row.
The current world champions also have the edge when it comes to the ICC Champions Trophy. Of the three meetings, England has won two while New Zealand’s solitary win came in 2009 at Johannesburg. So the numbers game at the moment goes in the favor of Eoin Morgan’s side, but cricket is a game of unpredictability. So will New Zealand extract revenge or will England add another feather to the cap, it remains to be seen.
