• Home
  • Cricket News
  • Otago Volts Vs Wellington Firebirds Match 15 Preview Predictions Fantasy Xi

Otago Volts vs Wellington Firebirds | Match 15 Preview, Predictions, Fantasy XI

The Otago Volts take on the Wellington Firebirds in the season's 15th match, at John Davies Oval, Queenstown. It's a showdown between the teams at the bottom of the standings. Otago is currently in fifth place with six points from five games, while Wellington is in last place with four points from four games.

The two teams latest contests were not memorable as they were handed defeats. First, the Volts were defeated by the Canterbury Kings by a margin of 36 runs. The only highlight for the Volts in that game was captain Rutherford's knock of 62(48). The Firebirds, on the other hand, were defeated by the Aces by just 13 runs after failing to chase a 135-run target. Michael Bracewell, who was unbeaten on 58(46), was the lone player in the uncompleted chase.

Josh Finnie, who returned from injury for the Otago, will now be available to play. And the rest of the team will include players who have appeared in the majority of the games, thus far. The visiting captain, on the other hand, may alter the team's lineup slightly. James Neesham has returned to the Firebirds' squad, and they are overjoyed to have him back. Both teams are looking to improve on their previous performances in order to make a statement in this tournament.

This Super Smash's league game will be played for the first time this season, and the captains are unsure about the big decisions that must be made. As a result, the bat and ball should compete fairly.

Match Details:

Otago Volts vs Wellington Firebirds- 15th Match

Date and Time: December 28, 2021, 7:10 AM IST

Venue: John Davies Oval, Queenstown

Broadcast: Fan Code

Pitch Report:

The pitch will be nice and hard helping both the batters and the bowlers equally. Seamers might extract more from the surface. The average first innings total at the ground is around 155-160. Usually, the captain who wins the toss here prefers to field first.  

Weather Conditions:

According to the forecasts, it will be clear most of the day with lots of clouds hovering around.

Probable Playing XI:

Otago Volts

Hamish Rutherford (c), Josh Finnie, Neil Broom, Anaru Kitchen, Max Chu (wk), Nick Kelly, Llew Johnson, Michael Rippon, Jacob Duffy, Matthew Bacon, Angus McKenzie.

Wellington Firebirds

Finn Allen (wk), Logan van Beek, Hamish Bennett, Ben Sears, Ollie Newton, Peter Young husband, James Neesham, Troy Johnson, Michael Bracewell (c), Luke Georgeson, Nathan Smith.

CE Fantasy XI:

Hamish Rutherford, James Neesham, Anaru Kitchen, Hamish Bennett, Michael Rippon, Logan van Beek, Jacob Duffy, Llew Johnson, Michael Bracewell.

Captain- Finn Allen

Vice-Captain- Neil Broom

Discover more
Top Stories
news

BBL 2021-22 | Joe Clarke's onslaught helps Melbourne Stars thwart Brisbane Heat's riposte

Not all England batsmen are struggling to dominate Australian bowlers and the pair of Joe Clarke and Ben Duckett were in full flow on Monday night and owned the Gabba ground where their countrymen started to fall off the clip in the Ashes series. To start with, Clarke blasted his way to a 44-ball 85 and led the Melbourne Stars to just a bit higher total than a firing Brisbane Heat batting lineup could reach on the back of a splendid knock from Duckett. The left-hander scored a 35-ball 54 and kept the Heat in the game although they were in pursuit of a mountainous target of 208 runs. The Heat were rocked early with the big wickets of Max Bryant and Tom Cooper even before they could get going and the men in blue were in real danger of losing the game by a very big margin. However, Duckett came as a batsman on a mission who wanted to match Clarke’s belligerence and put on a partnership of 87 runs from just 57 balls with Chris Lynn, who himself scored a brilliant 34-ball 57. Brody Couch was the pick of the bowlers for the Stars and after a double-wicket first over when he sent both Cooper and Bryant back, he came back to dismiss a swashbuckling Sam Heazlett in the middle phase of the game to completely derail the Heat’s chasing efforts. Any hope of a Heat’s comeback was crushed by the leg spinner Qais Ahmed and the Stars went on to seal a close win albeit they would have hoped and expected a rather comfortable win. Earlier, the new ball pair of Mark Steketee and Liam Guthrie vindicated the decision of bowling first taken by their skipper Jimmy Peirson as they obliterated the top three of the Stars’ batting comprising of Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis and Joe Burns. The onus was on the middle order after the failure of their star-studded top order and that’s when the duo of Clarke and Hilton Cartwright took upon themselves to take the attack to the opposition. From a precarious position of 16/3 in 2.5 overs, the duo carried the men in green to 167 runs by the end of the 15th over and the platform for a massive onslaught was set that eventually took them beyond the 200-run mark. The opening bowling pair of Steketee and Guthrie were taken to cleaners in the end as Qais Ahmed too joined the party with lusty hits in the end overs. With the win, the Stars have made their campaign even stevens with three wins and three losses from six games this season while the Heat got plummeted to the sixth position on the points table of an eight-team tournament.