The first semi-final of 2016 twenty20 world cup is set to be played between Group-2 winner New Zealand and Group-1 runner-up England on Wednesday. It will be the 5th meeting between two nations in the history of ICC World T20 as previously they met in 2007, 2010, 2012 and 2014. Both England and New Zealand have even winning record against each other in WT20s.

Preview

New Zealand and England have never met before in such a big pressure knockout game in the history of ICC World Twenty20 event. IN history they have played group matches against each other but now this time this is the battle to make a place in World Cup final. Although England have won world t20 trophy once in 2010 and will look to through to final once again in 2016.

On the other hand New Zealand team will be desperate to be in the finals and won world t20 for the first time ever. The fact is Blackcaps have never won ICC World Cup. In 2015 cricket world cup, they succeed to be in the final but lost it to Australia. Hence NZ team will definitely be eager to win this semi-final and go to the final to get closer to winning wt20 cup.

New Zealand have won all the group matches in the sixth edition of world t20 so far and will look to maintain their winning record in the event. They have beaten top teams of the tournament to be in the semis and will look to dominate English team in the spin friendly conditions at Feroz Shah Kotla. Santner and Sodhi have taken 9 and 8 wickets respectively so far in the 2016 wt20.

England have struggled a bit in the group stage of tournament and won some close matches against South Africa, Sri Lanka to secure semi-final berth. They are highly depending on their batting line up, especially on Joe Root. Moeen Ali, Adil Rashid and Liam Plunkett will be key bowlers for England on this bowling friendly wicket at Kotla.

Squads

New Zealand

Kane Williamson (Captain), Mitchell McClenaghan, Martin Guptill, Colin Munro, Corey Anderson, Luke Ronchi, Nathan McCullum, Tim Southee, Henry Nicholls, Mitchell Santner, Adam Milne, Ross Taylor, Ish Sodhi, Trent Boult, Grant Elliott.

England

Eoin Morgan (Captain), Jos Buttler, Joe Root, James Vince, Ben Stokes, Reece Topley, David Willey, Moeen Ali, Chris Jordan, Sam Billings, Liam Plunkett, Alex Hales, Liam Dawson, Jason Roy, Adil Rashid.

Predictions

New Zealand cricket team is favorite to win and as per Sports Mirchi predictions they have got 60 percent winning chances over England in the ICC World Twenty20 2016 first semi-final.