T20 World Cup Semi-Final Prediction: England versus New Zealand 43rd Match. Who Will Win?

The 2021 T20 World Cup has reached the business end. After 42 fascinating group matches, four teams are left with the chance to be crowned T20 champions of the world. The first semi-final will see England take on New Zealand, and if this match is anything as exciting as the 2019 World Cup final, then we will all be in for a treat. Both of these teams have won four of their five games, so definitely deserve to be here.

Who do we think will go on and take one step closer to lifting the coveted T20 World Cup trophy? Keep on reading this match prediction to find out.

England Team Preview

England have been very good in the T20 World Cup so far. Okay, they lost their last match to South Africa, but they showed us some more of their big hitting ability. They do, however, have two questions that they need to answer going into this semi. The first one is who will open the batting in the absence of Jason Roy, while the second is deciding whether Mark Wood is the best option to replace the injured Tymal Mills.

We feel that England will just put James Vince to bat alongside Jos Buttler at the top of the order to avoid having to change around the batting lineup. Vince is a very good batsman and he has scored plenty of runs for England as an opener, so we would back him to do a decent job. As for who will replace Mills, we reckon that they will stick with Wood and hope that he bowls a lot better than he did against South Africa.

The England batting lineup is really strong, and while it is obviously not ideal to lose Roy at such a crucial stage in the competition, we do not think that it will have a huge impact on their chances. The likes of Buttler, Jonny Bairstow, Dawid Malan, Liam Livingstone, Moeen Ali, and Eoin Morgan are all capable of scoring big runs against any bowling attack.

Abu Dhabi is a venue where the ball often spins a bit, but hopefully they will not have to play on a used surface in such an important game.

New Zealand Team Preview

Not many people expected New Zealand to make it into the semi-finals of the 2021 T20 World Cup, but they have done so at the expense of India. As usual, the Kiwis have brought their A game when it is needed the most.

When you compare players, not many will disagree when we say that England have the better players. Their opening pair is not that convincing, they do not have the same batting depth as England, and Jimmy Neesham seems to be the only one who can constantly clear the ropes at the moment.

The New Zealand captain, Kane Williamson, will play a huge role as the batsman to come in at the fall of the first wicket because he has the experience and the temperament to play under extreme pressure. We would actually put money on him being the top batsman for New Zealand. Another good choice for the Top Batsman market is Martin Guptill, who is their leading scorer in the tournament so far.

New Zealand will be hoping that the toss goes their way so that they can chase and even the contest out a little bit. Otherwise, batting first and scoring a big total against England is not going to be very easy.

To date, the New Zealand bowlers have been really good. Tim Southee, Trent Boult, Mitch Santner and Ish Sodhi have been exceptional in various conditions. However, their fifth bowler option is a bit weak, and we think Neesham might be targeted by England's batsmen.

Toss Prediction

The captain that wins the toss will want to have a bowl first. Not only has it been a big advantage to bat second at this World Cup, but both these sides have opted to field first on each occasion that they won the toss.

Pitch Conditions

The weather will not be an issue in Abu Dhabi, so the main focus will be on the pitch. In the match between Australia and the West Indies at this ground, we saw a high-scoring game, but it was a lot slower when New Zealand took on Afghanistan here. We are hoping that a fresh pitch is used in this game, and this is something that will help the batsmen. In this case, it is likely to be a high-scoring game, with 160 seen as a part score for whoever has to bat first.

Our Match Predictions

We are going to put our money on England to win this game. We just think that they have a better team than New Zealand and that they depth will allow them to replace their missing players without much trouble. New Zealand will always give it their all and do have enough to cause an upset, but we are going to back England to make it to the final.

Our match prediction: