Trans-Tasman rivals Australia and New Zealand will face-off in the 2021 World T20 final on Sunday to win their first-ever ICC title in this format. Australia has been a finalist once, while this is the first final in World T20 for the Kiwis. The two teams share a great cricketing rivalry playing some brilliant thrillers. There are also some great cricketing battles to be fought between the two teams when they face off in the World T20 final.
Cricwizz takes a look.
1) Aaron Finch vs Trent Boult
Aussie captain Finch was LBW for a golden duck to an incoming delivery from Pakistan left-arm pacer Shaheen Shah Afridi in the semi-final. Finch is a doubtful starter to pacers, especially to deliveries that come into him. Trent Boult is a likewise bowler to Afridi, and the Kiwi pacer has a great skill to get the full-length ball to move into the right-handed batsmen.
Boult knows Finch could be shaky with his footwork early on, and hence, angling the ball into him would be his best way to dismiss the Aussie skipper. It would be a real test for Finch to deny his wicket to left-arm pacers. It would be interesting to see who wins this battle.
2) Glenn Maxwell vs Ish Sodhi
Maxwell loves to take on spinners, especially wrist-spinners as he likes to play with their line and length by opting for the sweep, reverse sweep, switch hit, and scoop. But Sodhi is a difficult bowler to get away from. Maxwell will be in charge of not letting Kiwi spinners settle down, while Sodhi and Co will be looking to finish their quota of spin quickly by first slowing down the scoring rate, and then forcing mistakes out of Aussie batsmen. Sodhi will be looking to stop Maxwell pull off his outrageous shot-making by mixing up his deliveries, keeping the Aussie guessing all the time.
3) Kane Williamson vs Adam Zampa
Adam Zampa has been a revelation in this World T20. He has been the star performer for Australia and has been difficult to score off on the slow pitches of UAE. He would once again be called upon to break the backbone of the Kiwi batting line-up by dismissing their skipper Kane Williamson early on, or otherwise, the latter could run away with the game or trophy. Meanwhile, Williamson is a great player of spin, but the pressure to score runs off Zampa could see him make mistakes. Zampa vs Williamson is an epic battle to watch out for.
4) Daryll Mitchell vs Mitchell Starc
Mitchell was the hero of New Zealand’s win over England in the first semi-final. Mitchell exploded in the death overs, having a go at Chris Woakes to win a final berth for New Zealand. It was a credit to Mitchell for surviving the initial spell of pace bowling before sealing it against them in the death overs. But Aussie bowling attack opener Mitchell Starc is a difficult pacer to get away with.
He can be so accurate with his yorkers that less than a second late could see the wickets being tumbled or caught LBW. So, can Mitchell handle the pace, accuracy, and incoming deliveries of Starc? And if yes, then can Mitchell make it count later on?
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Cover Credits: CricketCafe
