Australia and New Zealand are perhaps the two best teams in the tournament at the moment. Sri Lanka hurt themselves when they lost so badly to Australia. And they are not entirely out of the clutches of the Aussies just yet. New Zealand plays the world champs today and if they win well enough to have a better net run rate than the Australians, they could well top the group and leave Sri Lanka to face Australia in the semis.

Australia is not known to be afraid of any team, but in a stage like the semi-final, one bad day is all they need to be knocked out. And they may want to especially avoid the South Africans. For today’s match, though, New Zealand will do well not to lose badly. Not to sound defeatist, but the Australians are looking far too strong for absolutely anyone and despite the recent control the Kiwis have over the Aussies, it will take much more to beat the Australians in the World Cup; it’s not been done since 1999!

New Zealand has had a slightly tough time up the batting order and would do well to sort out that issue asap! Scott Styris, their best batsman, also would like to have some more runs on the board when he comes in to bat and even if these runs are not scored at a lightning rate, it would be important that New Zealand preserve wickets for an assault later.

As for the Kiwi bowling, they would do well to pick up some early wickets. Especially Hayden and/or Gilchrist. Even if one of them gets away, it can be fatal! The game would be very interesting since neither team would want to give away too much in terms of strategy or weakness! It will be a bit of a game of poker in addition to the cricket and since both teams will play at full strength, the mind games would be really interesting.

Ponting versus Fleming; the two best tacticians in the game will be at full tilt. And the last time New Zealand beat Australia, Ponting wasn’t there. So there’s another score to be settled.