New Zealand, the joint table-toppers in the ongoing ICC Cricket World Cup will be up against Afghanistan in their fourth match of the tournament and possibly the last one where could relax a bit before the big ones, or can they? Is there anything like small or big games left now, given how Afghanistan and Netherlands beat England and South Africa respectively? And having spun the web in Delhi, the Afghanistan bowling unit will be licking their lips to bowl in Chennai, a surface made for a team like theirs that depends considerably on their spin trio.
New Zealand will be without regular captain Kane Williamson for at least three matches after suffering an undisplaced thumb fracture which means Tom Latham get back the captaincy and the Kiwis will have a challenge in reading the Afghan spinners without him. The teams are likely to stay similar with Will Young coming in for Williamson but facing quality spin will be their real test.
Chennai weather forecast
The weather is going to remain on the hotter side in Chennai on Wednesday, October 18. There is a probability of 25 per cent of rain, as per Accuweather, but the radar is clear which means a full 100-over match is on the cards. There will be a cloud cover, which is natural since the monsoon is set to arrive in the city in a couple of weeks and by then the Chennai matches will be done. The temperatures are set to hover around a high of 33 degrees and a low of 27 degrees.
MA Chidambaram Stadium pitch report
The two pitches on which the World Cup games have taken place so far at Chepauk have behaved differently but the results have been more or less similar. The first one where India faced Australia was a slow turner where batting was really difficult and was a 250-260 kind of surface. In the second game, the pitch had a tennis-ball bounce as many felt like Chennai became Perth in one day but the result was the same, scoring was difficult and the batters were finding it hard to score through the line. So whichever the surface be, a turner or the one which assists the pacers, the batting will be hard and the team winning the toss is likely to bat first.
Probable playing XIs
New Zealand: Devon Conway, Rachin Ravindra, Will Young, Daryl Mitchell, Tom Latham(c/w), Glenn Phillips, Mark Chapman, Mitchell Santner, Matt Henry, Lockie Ferguson, Trent Boult
Afghanistan: Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Ibrahim Zadran, Rahmat Shah, Hashmatullah Shahidi(c), Mohammad Nabi, Ikram Alikhil(w), Azmatullah Omarzai, Rashid Khan, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Naveen-ul-Haq, Fazalhaq Farooqi
Live streaming and telecast
The New Zealand-Afghanistan clash will kick off at 2 PM IST with the toss scheduled to take place half an hour before. The match will be live on Star Sports 1, Star Sports 1 HD, Star Sports 1 Hindi, Star Sports 1 Hindi HD and other language-specific channels in Kannada, Tamil and Telugu on TV. The live streaming of the match will be available on the Disney+ Hotstar app and website. Mobile users can watch the match for free on Hotstar.
