Pakistan won the toss, decided to bowl first; New Zealand captain Williamson returns

The match will be very important in terms of the race for the semi-finals because the path ahead will be easier for the team that wins today's match. To qualify, the losing team will have to depend on the results of other teams along with winning the next match.

Playing-11 of both the teams
New Zealand: Kane Williamson (captain), Devon Conway, Rachin Ravindra, Daryl Mitchell, Tom Latham (w), Glenn Phillips, Mark Chapman, Mitchell Santner, Ish Sodhi, Tim Southee, Trent Boult.

Pakistan: Babar Azam (captain), Fakhar Zaman, Abdullah Shafiq, Mohammad Rizwan (wicketkeeper), Saud Shakeel, Iftikhar Ahmed, Salman Ali Aga, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Hasan Ali, Mohammad Wasim Jr. and Haris Rauf.

Why is today's match important?
Pakistan is at sixth position in the points table with 6 points from 7 matches with 3 wins and 4 losses. Whereas New Zealand is at fourth position with 8 points from 4 wins and 3 losses in the same number of matches. If Pakistan wins today, both the teams will have 8 points each in 8 matches. After this, Pakistan's last match will be against England and New Zealand's last match will be against Sri Lanka. If both the teams win and the issue of semi-final qualification is stuck at 10 points, then the team with better run rate will qualify.

If New Zealand wins today, the team will reach third position with 10 points. In such a situation, Pakistan will be able to score only 8 points even after winning its last match and the team will almost be out of the race for the semi-finals.

New Zealand lost 3 consecutive matches
New Zealand started the tournament by defeating defending champion England by 9 wickets. The Kiwi team then registered 4 consecutive wins by defeating Netherlands, Bangladesh and Afghanistan. The team was on top of the points table with 8 points but from here they suffered 3 consecutive defeats. New Zealand was first defeated by India by 4 wickets, then Australia by 5 runs and South Africa by 190 runs.

New Zealand, Australia and Afghanistan currently have 8 points. But due to better run rate, Australia is at third place and New Zealand is at fourth place. Rachin Ravindra has scored the most runs for New Zealand in the tournament, the 23-year-old young all-rounder has 415 runs in his name in 7 matches. Whereas left arm spinner Mitchell Santner is the top bowler of the team with 14 wickets.

Pakistan defeated Bangladesh after 4 consecutive defeats
Pakistan also started the World Cup well but the team got stuck somewhere in between. The team defeated Netherlands and Sri Lanka in 2 matches but after that they had to face defeats from India, Australia, Afghanistan and South Africa. After 4 consecutive defeats, the team defeated Bangladesh in the last match and kept the hopes of reaching the semi-finals alive with 6 points.

Pakistan is currently at sixth position in the table with 6 points. To reach the semi-finals, the team will have to win today's match and also win the last match of England by a big margin. The run rate of the team is currently in minus, to increase it the team will have to win the matches by a big margin in any case.

Shaheen Shah Afridi is Pakistan's top bowler in the tournament with 16 wickets. Afridi has taken 14 wickets in the last 5 matches only. Wicketkeeper Mohammad Rizwan is the top run scorer of the team, he has scored 359 runs in 7 matches.

Team News: Injury problem in New Zealand, Pakistani players fit
New Zealand's regular captain Kane Williamson could play only one match in the tournament due to injury. Now fast bowler Matt Henry is out of the tournament, Kyle Jamieson has been included in the squad in his place. Mark Chapman, Jimmy Neesham and Lockie Ferguson are also struggling with injury. On the other hand, Pakistan's Shadab Khan could not bowl against South Africa, he is now completely fit.

New Zealand's record bad in World Cup
Pakistan has always been dominant over New Zealand in the ODI World Cup. 9 matches were played between the two in the tournament history, Pakistan won 7 and New Zealand won only 2. From 1983 to 1999, Pakistan did not allow New Zealand to win 6 consecutive matches. The last match between the two was played in the last World Cup at Birmingham, Pakistan won it by a margin of 6 wickets. While New Zealand's last win came at the Pallekele ground in 2011, the team defeated Pakistan by 110 runs here.

115 matches were played between the two teams in ODI. New Zealand won in 51 and Pakistan won in 60. One match was tied, while 3 matches also remained inconclusive. During April-May this year, both played a 5-match series, Pakistan won it by a margin of 4-1.

Weather condition
There is a rainy atmosphere in Bengaluru at this time. The temperature of the city on Saturday will be between 20 to 27 degrees Celsius. The wind will blow at a speed of 16 km per hour, while there is a 90% chance of rain. If the weather report is correct then today's match will be washed out due to rain, in this condition both the teams will get 1 point each.

Pitch report
Bengaluru's M Chinnaswamy Stadium has always been helpful for batting. Here spin, medium and fast bowlers also get beaten a lot. Played 2 matches here so far in this World Cup. Batting first, Australia scored 367 runs, in reply Pakistan also scored 305 runs. The second match between Sri Lanka and England was low-scoring, in this match the English team was all out for 156 runs.

The highest score at this ground is 383 runs, which was made by India against Australia in 2013. Whereas England being all out for 156 runs is the smallest score here. Due to dew falling at night, chasing becomes easier, in such a situation the winner of the toss will prefer to bowl first.