New Zealand

The excellent all round talents of New Zealand with bat, ball and in the field, will make it one of the main contenders for the ICC World Twenty20 event.

Consistent performers at major ICC events, having reached the semi-finals of both the ICC Champions Trophy 2006 and the ICC CWC 2007, it is expected that the Kiwis will feature in the latter stages of the event.

At the CWC 2007, Scott Styris was the star with the bat, scoring 499 runs, while Daniel Vettori and Shane Bond were the leading bowlers, with 16 and 13 wickets respectively, and New Zealand will again look to these experienced players to help them progress in the tournament. In a tough group with Kenya and Sri Lanka at the ICC World Twenty20 2007, New Zealand will try and use all its experience of previous Twenty20 international matches to help it progress. The Black Caps played in the first ever Twenty20 International against Australia in February 2005, which they lost by 44 runs, before recording their first win against South Africa by five wickets in October 2005.

New Zealand also played out the first ever tie in international Twenty20 cricket, against the West Indies at Auckland in February 2006, with the match being decided by the Kiwis’ comprehensive 3-0 win in the bowl-out.

They then drew a two-match series against Sri Lanka in December 2006, at Wellington and Auckland.

New Zealand has a thriving state Twenty20 competition, which was won in February 2007 by Auckland, when it defeated Otago by 60 runs in the final. Chris Harris was the leading run-scorer in the 2006/07 competition, while Ewen Thompson’s 12 wickets made him the leading wicket-taker.

New Zealand: Daniel Vettori (captain), Shane Bond, Peter Fulton, Mark Gillespie, Gareth Hopkins, Chris Martin, Craig McMillan, Brendon McCullum, Nathan McCullum, Jacob Oram, Jeetan Patel, Bradley Scott, Scott Styris, Ross Taylor, Lou Vincen

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