Ireland vs New Zealand One-off Test Predictions - Conway to crush all Ireland resistance in one-off Test
Ireland faces New Zealand for the very first time in Test cricket. New Zealand arrives in dominant form, having swept their recent series against Zimbabwe and West Indies, driven by top performers like Devon Conway and Tom Latham. Ireland, coming off disappointing losses to Bangladesh, will feature a mix of youth and experience, with up to four uncapped players. The key prediction recommends a New Zealand victory, expecting Devon Conway to score 74+ runs, while Andy Balbirnie is likely to surpass 40 runs for Ireland.
- Devon Conway scored 227 & 100 in his last Test match against the West Indies.
- Lorcan Tucker scored 21, 24, 94* and 65 in his last five innings.
- Can New Zealand make it five wins and a draw in their last six Tests?
Devon Conway hit a century in both innings in his last Test (Getty Images).
Ireland vs New Zealand Predictions
New Zealand have won their last two Test series by convincing margins, defeating Zimbabwe 2-0 and the West Indies 2-0. Ireland come into the match having lost their last two Tests to Bangladesh.
- Ireland vs New Zealand Predictions
- Head-to-Head
- Ireland Form
- New Zealand Form
- Ireland & New Zealand Team News
- New Zealand’s Devon Conway has scored 59*, 45, 53*, 40, 20 & 30 in 8 knocks.
- New Zealand’s Tom Latham scored 137 & 100 in his last Test against the West Indies.
- Ireland’s Lorcan Tucker scored 76* off 175 balls in his last Test against Bangladesh.
- Ireland’s Curtis Campher scored 71* off 259 balls in his last Test against Bangladesh.
Head-to-Head
This will be the first Test between the two teams.
Ireland Form
Ireland suffered back-to-back defeats against Bangladesh in their last Test series to lose the two-match contest 2-0.
Harry Tector (50), Curtis Campher (71*), Lorcan Tucker (75*) and Stephen Doheny (46) were the only batters to shine in their last Test. Curtis Campher has scored two half-centuries in his last six innings and Cade Carmichael has scored 65, 105, 59 and 28 in his last eight innings, but none of their batting colleagues have enjoyed much success with the bat recently.
Andy McBrine starred in the first innings against Bangladesh, snapping up figures of 6/109, but he managed only one wicket in the second dig as Bangladesh ran out winners by 217 runs.
New Zealand Form
New Zealand made it four wins from their last five Tests when they beat the West Indies by 323 runs in the 3rd Test to complete a 2-0 series triumph at home.
Openers Tom Latham (137 and 101) and Devon Conway (227 and 100) starred in both innings as New Zealand declared on 575/8 in their first innings and 306/2 in the second dig.
Jacob Duffy (4/86) and Ajaz Patel (3/113) toiled hard to eventually bowl the West Indies out for 420 in their first innings and then rolled them for 138 in their second to complete a huge win. Duffy picked up 5/42 in the second innings and Patel picked up 3/23.
Ireland & New Zealand Team News
Ireland are looking to blood up to four uncapped players for the one-off Test against New Zealand. They have included Jake Egan, Tom Mayes, Liam McCarthy and Reuben Wilson in their 14-man squad.
Ireland squad: Andrew Balbirnie (capt), Mark Adair, Curtis Campher, Cade Carmichael, Stephen Doheny, Jake Egan, Matthew Humphreys, Tom Mayes, Andrew McBrine, Liam McCarthy, Harry Tector, Lorcan Tucker, Reuben Wilson, Craig Young.
New Zealand have brought back pacemen Kyle Jamieson and Will O'Rourke for the Test against Ireland and both will also be part of the three-match Test series that will follow against England. Jacob Duffy is temporarily unavailable as he is with his wife as they await the birth of their first child.
New Zealand all-rounder hasn’t seen competitive action since the start of March, but he feels that being part of the Kolkata Knight Riders’ IPL squad (despite not playing in this past season) still benefitted him ahead of the Test against Ireland.
"There's benefits to playing cricket and training. There's also massive benefits being in the IPL too. I mean, you get to talk to someone like Ajinkya Rahane, who's a lovely man who's played so much cricket overseas, scored a hundred at Lord's and played so much cricket against England and Australia away,” said Ravindra in an interview with Cricinfo.
"The coach [Abhishek Nayar] used to be the assistant batting coach for India. You got Shane Watson, who is our batting coach, who has played England a lot, coached a lot of guys who have played England. So it's sort of, it's more than just the T20 as well. Being able to sit down and talk to Virat [Kohli] about batting or talking to KL Rahul - all these guys who've done well and had success over periods of time," added Ravindra.
New Zealand squad: Tom Latham (c), Tom Blundell, Kristian Clarke, Devon Conway, Zak Foulkes, Dean Foxcroft, Matt Henry, Kyle Jamieson, Daryl Mitchell, Henry Nicholls, Will O'Rourke, Glenn Phillips, Michael Rae (Ireland Test only), Rachin Ravindra, Ben Sears, Nathan Smith, Blair Tickner, Kane Williamson, Will Young.
Verdict
I am backing New Zealand to win. I am also backing Devon Conway to score 74 runs or more for New Zealand in the match, with Andy Balbirnie a good bet to score over 40 runs in the match.
New Zealand Win
Result
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Devon Conway
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