New Zealand vs England Prediction: Jamieson can help Jamie get 11/8 win for the hosts

Jamie Pacheco previews the 1st IT20 between New Zealand and England played at Christchurch on Saturday, with a start time of 07:15 and live on TNT Sports 1.  

Jamie thinks the hosts are the value at the prices and also likes the fit-again Kyle Jamieson to be his team's top wicket-taker at a decent-looking 4/1. Let's check out his top New Zealand vs England Predictions for Saturday Morning...   

*You can check out the Cricket Odds from all of our Cricket Betting markets over on betfred.com

Match Preview:

New Zealand  

As ever, New Zealand have picked a strong side here, full of quality and variety, with the canny Mitchell Santner in charge of affairs.   

We all know what the likes of Devon Conway, Tim Seifert, Rachin Ravindra, Matt Henry and Daryl Mitchell are about, but Michael Bracewell continues to improve as a genuine all-rounder, while Tim Robinson is making a splash at number three and should keep his place there for this Series, with Kane Williamson still recovering from injury. 

If Henry is arguably the best white-ball fast bowler in the world at the moment on ability, then it wasn't so long ago that Jacob Duffy - now down at five in the rankings - was the Number 1 T20I bowler in the world, as per the ratings.   

Make no mistake: this is one of the best New Zealand T20I sides we've seen in a while and whisper it quietly, but the absence of Williamson may not necessarily be a bad thing.   

England 

England had no shortage of white-ball cricket over the English summer with Series against the West Indies, South Africa and Ireland, with many of the squad also featuring in the entirety of the Hundred.  

Zak Crawley is something of a surprise inclusion in this T20I squad given he hasn't played for England in this format before but that's not to say hell get a game anyway with competition for places so tight at the top of the order.   

Sam Curran keeps his place after decent contributions on the back of a recall, while the Selectors seem set on giving Rehan Ahmed, much improved with the bat, a decent run in the side.  

There's no Jofra Archer though and that will be a big miss.   

Pitch and conditions

The first two matches of this Series will be played in Christchurch. And by that we mean the Hagley Oval in Christchurch, not the AMI Stadium in the same city.  

Curiously, all of the Kiwis' last four matches here have been against Pakistan, and not all in the same Series. The Black Caps won two and lost two of those four.  

Its's not always the easiest wicket to work out. Scores just below 160 were chased down in two of those four matches, while Pakistan's 134/8 was easily defended. In the last game here, played in March this year, New Zealand chased Pakistan's meagre 91 with the minimum of fuss. Jamieson took 3/8 in that one so he's one to keep an eye on in these conditions. So, like we say, not an easy pitch to predict but our guess is both skippers will probably want to chase.   

Match Winner odds 

New Zealand are 11/8 here, implied probability 42.1%. England are 4/7, which translates as 63.6%.  

Those are somewhat surprising odds. It's true that England are 16-10 up on the head-to-head record but it's also true England have had better T20I sides than this one and that this is one of the better New Zealand teams right now.  

Just looking at the last six between them and it's 3-3. 

An attack made up of Jamieson, Henry and Duffy in these conditions, well backed up by Santner and Bracewell, could be very tricky and what they have in Henry in particular (a fast bowler who can be devastating in the first few overs), England don't, with Archer not available.  

So, with the Kiwis having the better bowling and with the batting pretty much being a 50/50 affair, New Zealand rate the value. Simple.  

*For all the latest and live New Zealand vs England Odds then head over to betfred.com 

Top New Zealand Bowler  

It's always a risky strategy to take on a pair like Henry and Duffy, the former a world-beater as we know, the latter officially ranked 1 in the world as mentioned already.   

They're both 14/5 and whereas those odds are a reflection of the respect the odds-compilers are showing them, and for good reason, it does open the door to Jamieson, who on the back of those sub-3/1 prices, is 4/1 himself. 

Jamieson has had very much a stop-start career due to injury. I remember him as a 21-year-old giant who was meant to be the next big thing in world cricket and now he's 30 and has just over 50 appearances for his country across all formats, when that should have been at least 100.  

But when he's fit, he's good. And we certainly haven't forgotten about that 3/8 he took here a few years back. Above all, it's the price we like about a man who knows the conditions well and at the very least, should get through his four overs.  

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