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Don't win the toss, Nasser
Wisden CricInfo staff - February 15, 2002
This will be England's first game at the Westpac Trust stadium, where all Wellington's ODIs have been played since January 1999. Before that, 38 games were played at the Basin Reserve.
The Westpac will be the 73rd ground on which England have played a one-day international. When it hosted the first match against West Indies, on January 8, 2000, it became the 134th ODI venue.
New Zealand have played in all five previous ODIs on this ground, against five different opponents. In the four completed games (one match was abandoned) the side batting second has won three times.
The only side to successfully defend a total is Pakistan in 2000-01. Their 243 for 9 remains the highest score on the ground.
In the last three matches, the side winning the toss has been defeated, so Nasser might be hoping for a relapse into his toss-losing ways.
The highest individual innings is Alistair Campbell's 111 in 2000-01, the only century at the Westpac Trust stadium to date, an innings which couldn't prevent Zimbabwe losing to New Zealand by eight wickets.
There have been no five-fors, indeed only New Zealand's James Franklin has taken five wickets in total (at an average of 28.60). The best individual figures on the ground are Nuwan Zoysa's 4 for 28 in Sri Lanka's victory against New Zealand in 2000-01. Nobody else has taken more than three wickets in an innings.
Nathan Astle has developed a liking for the Westpac stadium, averaging 96 from his four innings. Stephen Fleming has had a rather less happy time on the ground, mustering only 19 runs at 6.33 in his four innings.
England will not be sorry that Wellington's one-dayers have moved from the Basin Reserve, where they lost five of the six games they played.
In all, England and New Zealand have met in 48 one-day internationals, with New Zealand winning 21 and England 23. But this series is the first meeting between the sides since 1996-97. In 1999, when New Zealand last toured England, there was no one-day series because of the World Cup. England's early exit prevented the sides from meeting at the Super Six stage.
© Wisden CricInfo Ltd
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