Toss New Zealand chose to bowl vs Papua New Guinea
Rain pushed the toss back by an hour and returned as both captains were out in the middle. That informed New Zealand captain Kane Williamson’s decision to send Assad Vala’s team in to bat first.
Leg spinner Ish Sodhi comes in for his first appearance of the tournament, replacing Jimmy Neesham. PNG, meanwhile, made two changes to their XI from their previous match, with Charles Amini and Kabua Morea replacing Lega Siaka and John Kariko.
PNG’s second T20 World Cup appearance has been a valiant one despite them sitting bottom of the group with three defeats from three. A combative display in their opener against West Indies could have been followed by a win against Uganda had they fielded better.
The seven-wicket defeat to Afghanistan in Tarouba was more of a formality, but they are keen to sign off in style against a New Zealand batting group that has failed to launch.
Despite the geographical proximity, this is the first meeting between these two teams.
Playing XI
New Zealand 1 Finn Allen, 2 Devon Conway (wk), 3 Kane Williamson (capt), 4 Rachin Ravindra, 5 Daryl Mitchell, 6 Glenn Phillips, 7 Mitchell Santner, 8 Tim Southee, 9 Lockie Ferguson, 10 Ish Sodhi, 11 Trent Boult
Papua New Guinea 1 Assad Vala (capt), 2 Tony Ura, 3 Charles Amini, 4 Sese Bau, 5 Hiri Hiri, 6 Kiplin Doriga (wk), 7 Chad Soper, 8 Norman Vanua, 9 Alei Nao, 10 Kabua Morea, 11 Semo Kamea
Vithushan Ehantharajah is an associate editor at ESPNcricinfo
Source: ESPN Crickinfo