The 1st Semi-Final match of World Cup T20 2022 is scheduled to play between New Zealand and Pakistan on Wednesday, 9th November 2022 at Sydney Cricket Ground, Sydney.

New Zealand won its important match against Australia after they were beaten by England. The win of New Zealand against Australia played the main role to reach this team to the semi-finals. Remember that New Zealand had faced Pakistan in a tri-series right before the start of this world cup where they lost two out of three matches against Pakistan. Now they are going to face Pakistan in the conditions of Sydney. The batting order of New Zealand had been under pressure in this tournament. We had seen some big runs by their top batting order but the middle and lower batting order of New Zealand had disappointed its fans. We think that the batters of New Zealand will play this match aggressively. Finn Allen is the batter who is known as a hard hitter, especially in the power play. He plays with his shorts freely and can create problems for the bowling unit of Pakistan. Kane Williamson had scored some runs in this tournament but his strike rate had been very poor. We think that he will move himself to the fourth or fifth position for batting.

Two main batters of New Zealand Glenn Phillips and Devon Conway are in good form. They should take the responsibility of scoring the runs for New Zealand. The middle and lower batting order of New Zealand is led by Mitch Santner, Jimmy Neesham, and Daryl Mitchell are also known as hard hitters and can perform well against the spin bowlers of Pakistan. We had seen in the previous matches that if New Zealand lost a couple of early wickets, the middle and lowers batting order gets under pressure. The bowling unit of New Zealand is not stronger than Pakistan. Lockie Ferguson, Tim Southee, and Trent Boult are leading bowlers of New Zealand and they bowl well in the power play, they can restrict Pakistan on a low total. New Zealand won its previous match against Ireland with a margin of 35 runs. The skipper, Kane Williamson proved the highest run-scorer with 61 runs to his name on 35 balls. His strike rate was good in that match. Finn Allen scored 32 runs. Lockie Ferguson was the most successful bowler with three wickets to his name while Tim Southee, Mitchell Santner, and Ish Sodhi picked one wicket each.

Pakistan is in the semi-finals for not the best performances, but for good luck. The bags of the Pakistan team were packed and they were ready to fly back to Pakistan right before the match between South Africa and the Netherlands. The Netherlands cleared the road for Pakistan to the semi-finals and they cemented their place by winning the match against Bangladesh and now have a good chance to win the title of ICC T20 World Cup 2022. The main problem of Pakistan had been its batting order. The key batters of Pakistan like Mohammad Rizwan and Babar Azam had been struggling in this tournament. Both batters are openers but their strike rate also had been very poor which results in a lot of pressure on the rest of the batting order. The addition of Mohammad Haris added extra power to the batting lineup of Pakistan. He plays aggressively right from the first ball he faces and his strike rate had been outstanding. The middle batting order of Pakistan had been good and the matches that win Pakistan was due to the best performances by the middle batting order.

Mohammad Nawaz, Shadab Khan, and Iftikhar Ahmed had been good in the middle and last overs. There is a lot of responsibility on these bowlers in this important match and we think that they will surprise New Zealand in this match. The strength of Pakistan is its bowling unit. Shaheen Afridi is back the good form and he picked up four wickets in the previous match against Bangladesh. Haris Rauf also had been outstanding in the power play. Mohammad Wasim Jr is the other best bowler who had an outstanding record while bowling in the middle overs. Naseem Shah also had been good in this tournament. Mohammad Nawaz and Shadab Khan are the best spin bowlers in the middle overs. Shadab Khan played a big role for Pakistan with batting and bowling. He picked up two wickets in the previous match against Bangladesh in four overs against just 30 runs. Haris Rauf picked one wicket. Iftikhar Ahmed is the other option that can be used as a sixth bowling option. He was used as a bowler in the previous match and picked one wicket in three overs against just 15 runs. Pakistan is rich in the bowling department than New Zealand and it will be interesting to see how they perform in the conditions of Sydney.

New Zealand played 28 matches against Pakistan where they won 11 matches while Pakistan won 17 matches.

New Zealand is a strong team compared to Pakistan, at least on paper. According to our cricket match prediction, New Zealand is the favorite team who will win this match. There are many factors that make New Zealand a favorite team to win this match. Some of the key factors are mentioned as under:

• New Zealand is the best-performing team in this tournament
• The key batters of New Zealand are in good form
• Pakistan has a strong bowling unit than New Zealand
• Pakistan had won most matches played against New Zealand
• Both teams are struggling with the batting order but the middle batting order of Pakistan is doing well
• Pakistan has more depth in batting and bowling than New Zealand

New Zealand is full of experienced and young players of the t20 foramt. The batting order of this team is also strong and some well-known hitters of the t20 format are part of the squad of this team, so the winning chances of today’s match against New Zealand have been increased. The equation of who will win today’s cricket match prediction and who will win the cricket match today is mentioned as under.

New Zealand has a 52% chance to win this match
Pakistan has a 48% chance to win this match

The toss is playing an important role in the decision of all games of World Cup T20. Having a good total on the board is always a big advantage in these kinds of big matches. According to our toss prediction, the team who will win the toss may choose to bat first. Remember that a total of six matches of the ICC T20 World Cup had been played on this venue and all matches were won by the batting first team.

The 1st Semi-Final match of World Cup T20 2022 is going to be held at Sydney Cricket Ground, Sydney. We had observed in the previous matches played here that the pitch here at this venue is good for batting. The pitch is bouncy and fast and run-scoring is not much easy in early and middle overs. We are hoping that the surface is bound to get slower and be a bit more difficult for batting in this match. A score of 180 is going to be tough to chase.

The weather forecast for today match in Sydney is predicting some clouds around on match day and the weather forecast is also predicting some chances of rain but we are hoping for a full and uninterrupted match.

New Zealand: Finn Allen, Devon Conway (wk), Kane Williamson (c), Glenn Phillips, James Neesham, Daryl Mitchell, Mitchell Santner, Ish Sodhi, Tim Southee, Lockie Ferguson, Trent Boult.

Pakistan: Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Babar Azam (c), Mohammad Haris, Shan Masood, Iftikhar Ahmed, Mohammad Nawaz, Shadab Khan, Mohammad Wasim Jr, Naseem Shah, Haris Rauf, Shaheen Afridi.

Captain: Shaheen Shah Afridi
Vice-captain: Glenn Phillips
Devon Conway, Rizwan, Williamson, Shadab Khan, Neesham, Boult, Mohammad Wasim, Santner

Date: Wednesday, 9th November 2022
Time: 08:00 AM GMT / 07:00 PM LOCAL / 01:30 PM IST

• Stadium: Sydney Cricket Ground
• Location: Sydney, Australia
• Opened: 1854
• Capacity: 48,000
• Known as: Sydney Cricket Ground No. 1; Garrison Ground (1848-1877), Association Ground
• Dimensions: 156m long, 154m wide
• Ends: Paddington End, Randwick End
• Time Zone: UTC +11:00
• Home to: New South Wales, Sydney Sixers
• Other Sports: it is home to Australian Rules Football (Sydney Swans)
• Floodlights: Yes
• Curator: Tom Parker

• Total matches: 18
• Matches won batting first: 11
• Matches won bowling first: 6
• Average 1st Inns scores: 166
• Average 2nd Inns scores: 132
• Highest total recorded: 221/5 (20 Ov) by AUS vs ENG
• The lowest total recorded: 101/10 (16.3 Ov) by BAN vs RSA
• The highest score chased: 200/3 (20 Ov) by IND vs AUS
• The lowest score defended: 134/5 (20 Ov) by AUSW vs RSAW

Kane Williamson (c), Finn Allen, Trent Boult, Michael Bracewell, Mark Chapman, Devon Conway (wk), Lockie Ferguson, Martin Guptill, Adam Milne, Daryl Mitchell, James Neesham, Glenn Phillips, Mitchell Santner, Ish Sodhi, Tim Southee.