Scotland vs New Zealand Prediction: Black Caps, Overwhelming Favourites To Win The Opening Series

New Zealand will play Scotland in their first T20I series at the Grange Cricket Club in Edinburgh, Scotland. With too much batting talent on their side, a comfortable victory is unavoidable.

Scotland

As they prepare for the first series against New Zealand, they are probably grasping at straws. Knowing full well that they've tried everything in recent matches to outwit New Zealand, to no avail.

After following all the rules and employing new strategies, their efforts went completely to waste, and from that point on, it has been nothing but a string of defeats as they succumbed to a home defeat against Zimbabwe in a 3 match T20I series by 2-1.

This is the first format they'll get to play in after eight months of inactivity, and they hope to contribute a little positivity this time by performing at least to the best standards at home.

Participating in five matches and winning three in their most recent tournament Scotland have not necessarily reflected poor performance but to the eye it's more of a steady form and maintaining that form against New Zealand is going to be a difficult task.

Player To Watch

Richie Berrington (c)

•Expected to lead Scotland to victory against New Zealand the 35 year old captain has undergone 67 matches with an impressive strike rate of 128.13.

Scotland Probable Starting XI

Ollie Hairs. George Munsey, Richie Barrington(c), Matthew Cross(wk), Christopher McBride, Michael Jones, Michael Leask, Adrian Neill, Gavin Main, Hamza Tahir, Chris Sole.

New Zealand

The formidable team, which has been posing serious obstacles for all of their opponents they have encountered in all formats and has been in excellent form, is launching their way into the T20I series.

Given Scotland's recent dismal performance, their journey to Scotland will probably end in a victory for them after they defeated Scotland's sister country Ireland 3-0 resulting in double wins for them in the T20I series and ODI. However Ireland maintained their consistency as they did with Netherlands, so it wasn't an apparent easy victory for the Black Caps.

The fact that Scotland is playing in this format for the first time in eight months should allow New Zealand to capitalize on Scotland's lack of practice, and this will pay off brilliantly. This shouldn't be a difficult assignment for them.

New Zealand Probable Starting XI

Mitchell Santner (c), Martin Guptill, Finn Allen, Dane Cleaver (wk), Glenn Phillips, Daryl Mitchell, James Neesham, Michael Bracewell, Ish Sodhi, Blair Tickner, Lockie Ferguson.

Expert Betting Tips

The Black Caps' last meeting with Scotland saw them defeat the hosts by 16 runs in the T20 world cup, and with confidence high after defeating Ireland just recently, another victory is undoubtedly on the way.

Though Scotland did well in one-day internationals against Nepal and Namibia, it will be extremely difficult for them to hold off New Zealand, and a victory in the first series is quite improbable this time unless of course, New Zealand is caught left-field.

• Over Total Runs Team 2 1 - Over, Over 5.5 for 1.668
• Team To Win Toss Team 2 for 1.91
• Runs At Fall Of 1st Wicket Over 20.5 for 1.90