ICC World Cup 2015: New Zealand vs England - Player vs Player stats

With the stats clearly favoring the Kiwis, is it going to be England’s second loss?

Not often in a world cup campaign do you see a case where a visitor has to face both the host nations in succession. Sadly though, the Barmy Army is into one such predicament. Friday’s match at the Westpac Stadium - The Cake Tin, as it is known to locals, will be only England’s second match of the tournament after having lost its opening encounter against the co-host Australia. Meanwhile, New Zealand, who are sitting pretty after two comfortable wins, have little to worry about with the match set to happen in their own backyard.

Kiwis, besides their home advantage, have a well-balanced unit with the batting line-up running till 7 down and bowling attack offering swing, pace and left and right-arm variety. Friday’s match will be their third in the seven days but both their earlier wins have come quite comfortably with an all-round effort. England, on the other hand, have visible qualms to address. Their batting was mediocre against Australia with its top order failing to deliver and their bowling failed to make any amends either. Having said that, the English can take some cues from their earlier tour to New Zealand, in which, they won the ODI series 2-1.

Here, we statistically compare the expected playing XIs of both the sides and attempt to judge which team will start the contest as favourites. The winner between each duo has been judged only by ODI career stats and not talent, form or anything else.

PLAYER vs PLAYER COMPARISON

New Zealand	England	Who’s better?
Martin Guptill	Moeen Ali	NZ
Runs - 3258, Avg - 37.02, SR - 80.12	Runs - 550, Avg - 30.55, SR - 101.66
Brendon McCullum	Ian Bell	NZ
Runs - 5560, Avg - 30.38, SR - 92.12	Runs - 5190, Avg - 37.33, SR - 77.17
Kane Williamson	Gary Ballance	NZ
Runs - 2547, Avg - 46.30, SR - 82.91	Runs - 271, Avg - 24.63, SR - 70.38
Ross Taylor	Joe Root	NZ
Runs - 4936, Avg - 41.47, SR - 82.43	Runs - 1605, Avg - 39.14, SR - 79.81
Grant Elliott	Eoin Morgan	ENG
Runs - 1357, Avg - 33.92, SR - 74.80	Runs - 3848, Avg - 35.96, SR - 85.51
Corey Anderson	James Taylor	NZ
Runs - 773, Avg - 36.80, SR - 108.60	Runs - 441 Avg - 44.10, SR - 76.82
Luke Ronchi	Jos Buttler	Evens-Stevens
Runs - 953, Avg - 35.29, SR - 124.41	Runs - 1149, Avg - 31.05, SR - 108.60
Daniel Vettori	Chris Woakes	NZ
Wickets - 295, Avg - 31.94, ECO - 4.12	Wickets - 43, Avg - 33.51, ECO - 5.94
Adam Milne	Stuart Broad	ENG
Wickets - 16, Avg - 42.81, ECO - 5.13	Wickets - 175, Avg - 29.06, ECO - 5.27
Tim Southee	Steven Finn	NZ
Wickets - 120, Avg - 30.58, ECO - 5.18	Wickets - 83, Avg - 27.55, ECO - 4.92
Trent Boult	James Anderson	Evens-Stevens
Wickets - 22, Avg - 32.45, ECO - 4.77	Wickets - 264, Avg - 29.10, ECO - 4.92
New Zealand 7 – England 2

NOTE: The lineups mentioned above are predicted teams and might not actually be the XIs that take to the field tomorrow.

Summary

It is quite evident from the table that the Kiwis are going to start as favorites ahead of tomorrow’s clash. Winning this match will almost ensure them a place in the knock-out round. England definitely have to pull up their socks while they take to field tomorrow and aim for a victory which will ease their nerves for the upcoming games. All they can hope for is some of their big names like Anderson, Bell, Morgan and Broad to see them through.