Ireland vs New Zealand Highlights, T20 World Cup 2022: Williamson, Ferguson propel NZ to easy victory vs IRE in Adelaide

Mike Atherton says that the pitch is “smack-bang in the middle of the ground. Looks a pretty good one. Always an inviting place to come as a batter. It's a fresh pitch, and looks among the best I've seen. It's evenly grassed and quite firm. Runs to be had.”

Kane Williamson had a strike rate of 117.32 last year and is going at 112.70 this year. He has been a brilliant captain, but as a batter he has been struggling, particularly this year. He is striking at 93.42 in the 2022 T20 World Cup and has scored 71 runs in three innings. However, both Graeme Swann and Gautam Gambhir say in the Star Sports studio that any questions about Williamson's place in this team is nonsense, his role as an anchor is very important for them. 

Australian fans will be dawning Irish colours for now with their gold shirts reserved for later in the day when their team take on Ireland. Then tomorrow they can go all out for Sri Lanka. This is because Ausralia's most straightforward mode of qualification would be for them to beat Afghanistan while England and New Zealand both lose their respective matches. 

It is cloudy but chances of rain during this match is said to be negligible. Teams batting first have generally had the advantage at the Adelaide Oval.  

A win over England would have allowed New Zealand to qualify for the semi-finals and they were in a very good position to get that heading into the last five overs of their chase. But then, the England pacers, led by the brilliantly in-form Sam Curran, applied the breaks on them and they ended up losing the match by 20 runs. 

Finn Allen, Devon Conway(w), Kane Williamson(c), Glenn Phillips, James Neesham, Daryl Mitchell, Mitchell Santner, Ish Sodhi, Tim Southee, Lockie Ferguson, Trent Boult, Michael Bracewell, Mark Chapman, Adam Milne, Martin Guptill

Paul Stirling, Andrew Balbirnie(c), Lorcan Tucker(w), Harry Tector, Curtis Campher, George Dockrell, Gareth Delany, Mark Adair, Fionn Hand, Barry McCarthy, Joshua Little, Simi Singh, Conor Olphert, Graham Hume, Stephen Doheny

The short is, very precariously indeed. It is pretty much a three-way race to the semis but Sri Lanka have a very, very faint chance of making it as well. So do Ireland, although their chances are even fainter than Sri Lanka's. New Zealand, Australia and England are all tied on five points, with their net run rates putting New Zealand (+2.233) first, England (+0.547) second and Australia (-0.304) third. Sri Lanka trail them by only a point but their net run rate of -0.457 means they will need a mathematical miracle to reach the semis. If Ireland, with an NRR of -1.544 make it, well the tournament should be stopped right there because no team can achieve anything bigger than that.  

New Zealand are practically one step away from the semi-finals but they know that victory is something they simply can't take for granted today. Ireland have been mighty impressive in this tournament and they will have enough motivation to go out with an almighty bang. The Kiwis have their fate in their own hands at the moment but that won't be the case if they lose. If that happens, they would have to hope that either England or Australia lose their respective final matches of the Super 12 stage as well at the very least.