, Kane Williamson (capt), Glenn Phillips, Daryl Mitchell, Jimmy Neesham, Mitchell Santner, Tim Southee, Ish Sodhi, Lockie Ferguson, Trent Boult. Pakistan Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Babar Azam (capt), Mohammad Haris, Shan Masood, Iftikhar Ahmed, Shadab Khan, Mohammad Nawaz, Mohammad Wasim, Naseem Shah, Haris Rauf, Shaheen Afridi. 7:44AM Good morning and welcome to coverage of the first T20 World Cup semi-final from Sydney. The first news is from the toss which was won by New Zealand who have elected to bat first at the SCG. One suspects Kane Williamson has done what Babar Azam would have chosen to do, too, but given Pakistan always do things the hard way in global tournaments, from 1992 to 2009 and on the road to the Champions Trophy in 2017, it may well benefit them by starting as long-shot underdogs and from their least favoured position. Williamson said on deciding to take first hit that it is "a used pitch, devoid of grass and it is important that we adjust to the changing conditions". He says there's no point focusing on past encounters or what's gone before in this tournament. Their only thought is to "focus on this game and the conditions". Which is about s meaningless a piece of 'captain-speak' as you could hope for. Babar, who says his team is unchanged from the victory over Bangladesh that loosened the hinges on the door they later barged through when Netherlands beat South Africa, says only "we will play according to the situation [and] we will look to put pressure on them". Well. really. It's not their fault, of course, but anything pre-match these days is pure bilge. We may as well have them tell us what they've decided to do, read out the teams and skedaddle, rather than subjecting us and them to these cliches. Speaking of teams:){kind=link}
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New Zealand Finn Allen, Devon Conway (wk), Kane Williamson (capt), Glenn Phillips, Daryl Mitchell, Jimmy Neesham, Mitchell Santner, Tim Southee, Ish Sodhi, Lockie Ferguson, Trent Boult.
Pakistan Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Babar Azam (capt), Mohammad Haris, Shan Masood, Iftikhar Ahmed, Shadab Khan, Mohammad Nawaz, Mohammad Wasim, Naseem Shah, Haris Rauf, Shaheen Afridi.
Good morning and welcome to coverage of the first T20 World Cup semi-final from Sydney. The first news is from the toss which was won by New Zealand who have elected to bat first at the SCG. One suspects Kane Williamson has done what Babar Azam would have chosen to do, too, but given Pakistan always do things the hard way in global tournaments, from 1992 to 2009 and on the road to the Champions Trophy in 2017, it may well benefit them by starting as long-shot underdogs and from their least favoured position.
Williamson said on deciding to take first hit that it is “a used pitch, devoid of grass and it is important that we adjust to the changing conditions”. He says there’s no point focusing on past encounters or what’s gone before in this tournament. Their only thought is to “focus on this game and the conditions”. Which is about s meaningless a piece of ‘captain-speak’ as you could hope for.