Live: Black Caps vs Pakistan – Cricket World Cup

Cricket World Cup: Black Caps v Pakistan; Where: M Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru; When: Saturday, 6pm [NZ time]; Coverage: Sky Sport 1, live updates on Stuff

For the second World Cup in a row, the Black Caps and Pakistan look to be contesting one semifinal spot, though Afghanistan are right in the mix as well and Australia could yet slip up and put two places into play.

The two teams have combined to produce just one win in the last 17 days – Pakistan’s over Bangladesh on Tuesday.

Otherwise, they have lost a total of six matches in that time. Will New Zealand’s three-match slide grow or will Pakistan’s recovery continue?

Here’s everything you need to know as they face off in Bengaluru.

Squads

Black Caps: Kane Williamson (c), Trent Boult, Mark Chapman, Devon Conway, Lockie Ferguson, Kyle Jamieson, Tom Latham, Daryl Mitchell, Jimmy Neesham, Glenn Phillips, Rachin Ravindra, Mitch Santner, Ish Sodhi, Tim Southee, Will Young

Pakistan: Babar Azam (c), Shadab Khan, Fakhar Zaman, Imam-ul-Haq, Abdullah Shafique, Mohammad Rizwan, Saud Shakeel, Iftikhar Ahmed, Salman Ali Agha, Mohammad Nawaz, Usama Mir, Haris Rauf, Hasan Ali, Shaheen Afridi, Mohammad Wasim

Team news

Kyle Jamieson has replaced Matt Henry in the Black Caps’ squad, after Henry tore his right hamstring in their loss to South Africa. It was only set to be determined at their training on Friday afternoon whether Kane Williamson, Mark Chapman, Lockie Ferguson and Jimmy Neesham were available, as they deal with a range of issues. All-rounder Shadab Khan is recovering from a concussion for Pakistan and no decision had been made on his involvement.

Weather forecast

A cloudy day is in store in Bengaluru with a high of 27 degrees forecast by Accuweather. There is also the possibility of showers and thunderstorms in the afternoon.

History

The Black Caps and Pakistan have met 115 times in ODIs, with New Zealand winning 51 and losing 60, one ending in a tie and the other three ending with no result.

At World Cups, Pakistan have won nine of their 11 meetings, including the infamous semifinal at Eden Park in Auckland in 1992 and another semifinal in England in 1999.

The Black Caps’ two wins came in the round-robin in 1992 and in the group stage in 2011.

Form

Black Caps: Lost to South Africa by 190 runs, lost to Australia by five runs, lost to India by four wickets, beat Afghanistan by 149 runs, beat Bangladesh by eight wickets, beat the Netherlands by 99 runs, beat England by nine wickets

Pakistan: Beat Bangladesh by seven wickets, lost to South Africa by one wicket, lost to Afghanistan by eight wickets, lost to Australia by 62 runs, lost to India by seven wickets, beat Sri Lanka by six wickets, beat the Netherlands by 81 runs

What they said

Black Caps batter Daryl Mitchell: “We won’t make it bigger than what it is. We’ll just keep doing what Kiwis do and we’ll see what happens”.

Pakistan director of cricket Mickey Arthur: ”I’ll be brutally honest, I don’t think we’ve played to our full potential this tournament yet. I thought the Bangladesh game is the first game where we actually put a complete game together. We batted beautifully, bowled beautifully, and fielded beautifully, which in all the other games, we’ve done one or two disciplines OK, but our other disciplines let us down”.