Australia v New Zealand: The Stats
Introduction
Australia and New Zealand have met 124 times in ODI cricket with Australia winning 85 matches and New Zealand 34, with five no-results. Australia has won seven of their last ten meetings.
They have met four times in the ICC Champions Trophy with Australia winning all four. It won by 164 runs at Colombo in 2002, by seven wickets at The Oval in 2004, by 34 runs at Mohali in 2006 and by six wickets at Centurion in the 2009 final.
Australia won the tournament in 2006 and 2009. New Zealand won in 2000.
Lie of the Land
Australia has played 11 ODIs at Edgbaston, winning four and losing five with one tie and one no-result. New Zealand has played seven games at the venue, with three wins, two defeats and two no-results.
40 day ODIs have been played at the ground. 18 have been won batting first and 19 batting second, with one tie and two no-results.
In those 40 matches, nine captains won the toss and chose to bat and 31 chose to bowl.
The average first innings score is 223.
Recent ODI form
Australia has played 11 ODIs in 2013, winning seven and losing three with one no-result. It lost to England by 48 runs at Edgbaston in its first match, having beaten the West Indies by four wickets at Cardiff and lost to India by 243 runs at the same venue in its warm-up matches.
New Zealand has played ten ODIs so far in 2013, winning six and losing four. It beat Sri Lanka by one wicket at Cardiff first time out, having won its recent ODI series in England 2-1.
Upcoming milestones
Brendon McCullum needs 56 runs to become the third New Zealander to score 5000 ODI runs.
Kyle Mills will be the outright leading wicket-taker in Champions Trophy history if he claims one more victim. Prior to this match, he stands equal with Muttiah Muralidaran on 24 wickets.
Reliance ICC Rankings News
Australia needs to win in order to stay second in the Reliance ICC One-Day International Championship. Lose and it will fall to fourth. Victory for New Zealand would ensure seventh place, but defeat would drop it below the West Indies if they have earlier beaten India.
Shane Watson scored unbeaten centuries in his last two ICC Champions Trophy matches in 2009. He is Australia’s only batsman in the world’s top ten.
George Baileyhas made a strong start to his ODI career, averaging 45.50 with a strike rate of 83.74 and has entered the world’s top 20 batsmen.
Phil Hughes is also at a career-best ranking of 37th.
Clint McKayhas only played 43 matches, but already boasts 76 wickets, good enough to be ranked eighth in the world.
Mitchell Starc was expensive against England, but still boasts 37 wickets in 19 ODIs – and a batting average of 40.66!
Martin Guptill is now New Zealand’s highest-ranked batsman, after his back-to-back centuries against England.
Ross Taylor and Brendon McCullum are just behind him in the world’s top 15.
Kyle Mills bowled superbly against Sri Lanka and is the Kiwi’s highest bowler in 12th.
Tim Southee was economical in his first game and has 22 wickets at 22.90 in his last 13 matches.
Meanwhile, Daniel Vettori will be looking to recapture some of the form which saw him top-ranked for 334 matches between 2008 and 2011.