Wellington Firebirds vs Canterbury Kings, The Ford Trophy, Today Match Prediction 20 October 2024

WELL vs CANT Match Prediction & Analysis

Canterbury are the defending champions of the Ford Trophy, which will kick off the domestic season in New Zealand this time around. They are up against Wellington in the first match of the season. It is likely to be a contest that could go one-sided given to struggles faced by Wellington last season. However, it was also Wellington who had the last laugh in the recent head-to-head meeting between the two teams in December 2023 when they managed a 55-run victory.

TEAMS PREVIEW

Wellington Firebirds Preview

Wellington struggled with almost every facet during the 2023-24 season. The team finished with just 13 points from the 10 matches last season. Towards the end of the campaign, Wellington were guilty of suffering some heavy losses without putting up much of a fight. The last match of the 23-24 season against Otago saw the team lose by eight wickets.

Troy Johnson provided most of the runs for the team during the 2023-24 campaign. He finished the campaign with 333 runs from his nine innings at an average of 41.6. Even though he did come close to grabbing a ton, Johnson did manage three half-centuries. Nick Kelly was the other crucial contributor with the bat last season after turning up at 252 runs from his nine innings average of 28.

On the bowling front, the key players for the campaign could be Nathan Smith and Peter Younghusband. The duo were able to manage a combined 20 wickets with Smith getting a narrow lead in front. Smith was able to pick up 11 wickets from just eight innings at an average of 29.

Wellington Firebirds Predicted Playing XI:

Callum McLachlan, Nick Greenwood, Troy Johnson, Nick Kelly (c), Muhammad Abbas, Jesse Tashkoff, Nathan Smith, Logan van Beek, Peter Younghusband, Ollie Newton, Ian Meake

Canterbury Kings Preview

Canterbury were able to finish the previous campaign as the winners for the 16th time. After a relatively comfortable victory over Auckland in the final, there is a lot of expectation for the team coming out of the new campaign. Canterbury have not made big changes to the squad with only a handful of players being introduced for the 2024-25 season.

The top batsman for Canterbury last season was Chad Bowes with his 346 runs from just seven innings at a staggering average of 86.5. Purely in of average, Chad Bowes was miles better than the top 20 batsmen from last season. The strength of Canterbury was also in the batting line-up and it was evident from the availability of several Canterbury players in the top 20 rankings.

The success of last season was largely built on the bowling success of Zakary Foulkes, who finished the season with 17 wickets from just 10 matches at an average of 21.88. It will continue to be very difficult for Canterbury to continue to depend heavily on one player even if the team is able to win the title last season.

Canterbury Kings Predicted Playing XI:

Chad Bowes, Henry Nicholls, Tom Latham, Leo Carter, Cole McConchie (c), Mitchell Hay, Michael Rippon, Zakary Foulkes, Henry Shipley, Angus McKenzie, William O’Rourke

Weather Conditions

This will be the first time Basin Reserve in Auckland gets ready to host one of the matches from the venue since last season the games took place at the Basin Reserve in Wellington. The average score for Wellington in the last against Canterbury stands at 202 Canterbury have been able to hit 206 runs in these two games. The weather in Auckland is expected to be cloudy with temperatures hitting a maximum of 19°C.

WELL vs CANT Pitch Report

Basin Reserve in Auckland will be one of the key locations for the Ford Trophy in the 2024-25 campaign. It gets to host two matches in the Round 1.

Toss: To Bat

Canterbury continue to possess a strong batting and bowling line-up. Armed with players like Zakary Foulkes, it will be very hard to counter Canterbury during the new-ball situations. This is likely to make the toss winner choose to bat first.