Lets discuss in detail Pitch report and Analysis of Bay Oval, Mount Maunganui New Zealand. This ground is hosts to Northern District of New Zealand home domstic team.
What is the Capacity of Bay Oval, Mount Maunganui?
The Bay Oval, Mount Maunganui has a seating capacity of about 10000 spectators.
Boundary Length/Size/Dimensions of Bay Oval, Mount Maunganui
The Bay Oval Ground in Mount Maunganui does have decent-sized boundary dimensions, when compared with some other grounds in New Zealand.
Although still quite average, the venue has boundary size ranging from 60-70 meters across all sides from the centre-wicket.
The boundaries are not too short, this is no eden park here.
Pitch Report and Analysis of Bay Oval, Mount Maunganui New Zealand
It is not a high-scoring ground as compared to some other venues in New Zealand, with the average score of 163 in the first innings. The pacers will always be in contest at the venue as there is a bit of purchase from the surface for them.
Pakistan captain Salman Ali Agha said during toss of the 4th T20 between Pakistan and New Zealand dated 23.03.2025 that it does look like an asian kind of wicket, we are a good enough team to play in any condition. But it was opposite to like Asian wicket. There was lot of seam and swing offered as the breeze was blowing. There was lot of help for the bowlers under lights. Disciplined bowling from New Zeland also showed that if there is bit of something in the pitch, they can restrict the opposition team with the discipline bowling of swing and consisitenly bowling wicket to wicket and in the off stamp lines to tease the batsman.
Statistically, teams batting first have won all men’s T20I games at this venue. So, considering this fact, the toss-winner might opt to bat first and put runs on the board.
T20 Statistics at Bay Oval, Mount Maunganui New Zealand
So far 14 matches has been played out of which 10 won by team batting first and one by team chasing. No results for three matches here.
Average, Highest, Miniumum T20 score at Bay Oval Mount Maunganui New Zeland
The average 1st innings score at this venue is approximately 165 runs. The highest T20 score at this venue is 243/5 by New Zeland and the lowest score is 110 by Bangladesh against the host team.
Pakistan VS New Zealand 4th T20 23.03.2025
New Zeland scored 220/6 at Bay Oval Mount Maunganui. Thanks to some poor wayward bowling from Pakistan opening batters. New Zeland openers targeted spinners and smacked them down the ground. Some good bowling from Haris Rauf and Ibrar Ahmad otherwise New Zeland was targeting 240 runs. In the run chase there was lot of swing and seam for the fast bowlers. Pakistan bowled out for 105 with major contribution only from this series debutant Abdul Samad who scored 44 of 30 balls. There was bad decision from Pakistan after winning the toss as 10 of T20s out of 13 here are won by teams batting first. This means there is help for the bowlers in the 2nd innings but an unwise decision from Pakistan Team. New Zeland bowlers bowled with discipline and off stamp lines to restrict Pakistan batters tamely. Neesham on the ground interview also said after 1st innings that we are able to get a above par total as the average 1st innings score here is 165.
Michael Bracewell: Happy with our performance, it was outstanding to bounce back after the previous game. Our batters got us well ahead in the game. Daryl and I were happy to get us to that score. I don’t think conditions changed too much. We were able to take some early wickets. It’s always nice to be there till the end and finish it off. Hopefully I will put my feet up in the next game. All the seamers were brilliant tonight. It was good to see Sodhi bowling towards the end, was nice to see him get that last wicket.
Salman Agha: They bowled really well, they outplayed us. Got to give credit to them. It was swinging and turning as well, it does a lot in the second innings. But we need to adapt as international crickets and do better. It was swinging a lot in the second innings, it was a bit too much. We need to regroup and we need to win that last game.
Finn Allen, Player of the Match: Pretty happy. I’ll take it. A few guys deserve to get this I think, but I’ll take it. It’s a pretty fickle game, you got to start fresh in every game. Our bowlers showed there was some good bounce in the wicket. Makes it difficult to get into rhythm sometimes.
Other Factors taking into consideration with Pitch to predict the Winner
Toss too has affect on the match result. If the pitch is batting friendly. Then obviously team winning the toss love to bowl first and chase it down on a batting paradise pitch. It is easy to chase down total on a batting friendly pitch.
If the pitch is balanced one for both batters and bowlers, then toss has little impact on the match result.
If pitch has something for the bowlers. The team winning the toss love to bowl first and exploit the pitch in the 1st innings and bowl out the opposite site on low total. Even there are also fair chances for the team bowling in 2nd innings to restrict the side by exploiting the pitch pace and bounce. Turn if the pitch got slower and spin.
On pitches where pitches get slower with passage of time. Team want to bat first and exploit the slowness of pitch by bowling slow deliveries and by putting on spinners.
2.Host Team prepare Pitch on their Strength
Host team always has advantage of their home grounds. Host team prepare pitches according to their team strengths. Like India make batting flat pitches as there batting is awlays strong and powerful. Sometimes against Australia and England, they make spin friendly pitches as Spin is their main weapon against these teams. Australia make pitches with pace and bounce as fast bowing at their home grounads is their main strength. This factor is also an important factor and can impact the match result also.
3.Dew affect on the Match Result
Dew also has affect on the match. If there is dew factor on the ground. Team love to chase as bowl became wet. Very difficult for the team bowling 2nd to grip the ball properly.
4.Weather Conditions affect on the Match Result
Weather too play the role. In case of rain, team try to chase the total as they have score in mind that is to be chased down.
5.Proper Discipline and Execution
Look at the matches played daily in the world. Some teams come to play on the stadium with proper planning,strategy and discipline. They excute better than the rival team. So team analysis is very important who is the captain of this team, team management and coaches, fighting instincts in the team etc.
For example, yesterday match was played between Mumbai Indians Women and Royal Challengers Women of WPL 2024. MI Women come with proper planning,goals and strategy even Harman preet Kaur and Shabnim Ismail were injured and not playing.
6.Strong team vs Weak Team
Like Multans Sultans is appearing to be the most balanced team in PSL 2024. They have good batters and very strong squad in bowlinng too. Hence they are at the top in the points table. On the other hand Lahore Qalandars and Karachi Kings are weak in this PSL and they are at the bottom. Lahore Qalandars unable to find right combinnation without Rashid Khan, Tim David and some other overseas players absence.
Very important factor in winning the match is team analysis of two teams.Pitch conditions are exception if the match is b/w a strong team and a weak team. Strong team is always favorite to win a cricket match. In current era, India and Australia are strong teams. Both teams have quality batters and bowlers. They are always favorite whatever the pitch condition is. Same applies to T20 leagues teams in IPL, BBL, PSL etc. Strong teams batters and bowlers have the requisite skills to win the match in their team favor. So team analysis is very important to assess before the match to preditct which team can win the match. For my point of view, team analysis is more important than pitch conditions. In BBL matches also strong and favorite teams have upper hand in the match.
India restricted Pakistan at a score of 242 in the Champions Trophy match 2025 and chased down the total easily with little fight from the Pakistani bowlers. It looked a completely different pitch when Pakistan played. It look most sluggish and difficult one. Pakistani batters played too many dot balls. But when India start chasing. It looked like the easiest of pitch for their batters. They played strokes at their will.
In a match against New Zeland in the CT 2025, India scored 249. But India restricted the oppostion at 205 with four quality spinners.
7.Presence of X Factor Players in the Team
If one team has more X factor players then that team has more chance of winning the match. X factor players are those players who can win the match for his team single handedly. Like in first match of KKR in IPL 204, Andress Russell won match for KKR when they were in worse condition top batters were out. It seems that on batting friendly Eden Gardens Kolkata team was going to score only 140-150 but Andree Russel innings of 64 in just 25 balls with a strike rate of 256 with with seven 6s and three 4s.That was unbeliveable batting. Andree Russel also took 2 wickets as he is an all rounder.
Travis Head, Pat Cummins,Buttler,Pant, Chahal, Rashid Khan, Bumrah, Hardik Pandya,Rohit Sharma,Kohli, Siraj, Surayakumar Yadav,Pooran, Hasaranga,Parag,Abhishek Sharma,Jaiswal and many more are some of the examples of X factor players. If team has more X factors players like RR and SRH in IPL 204. These team have ofcourse more chance of winning the match and we are also seeing on ongoing IPL 2024. Both RR and SRH are winning.
X factor players are also called match winner players and they are purchased at a very high price and some clicket while the tournament goes on. Like Parag, Abhishek Sharma developed as match winners in IPL 2024.
In Champions Trophy 2025, Subhmin Gill, Varun Chakarvaty, Hardik Pandya are proving to be X factors for India.
8.Poor Team Selection/ Cominbation and Team Conflict
Pakistan selected a poor team in the CT 2025 and they lost all the matches. They selected only one proper spinnner on pitches of Pakistan and UAE. That was ridiculous selection.
This is the responsiblity of the captain, team owners and team management to select the best strong and balanced team from auction and trade window. Otherswise team can suffer hugely. If playing XI is balanced with good team combination ofcourse the winning team is predictable almost 70%. Sometimes something is not in your hand like if the pitch is very batting friendly. Team chasing has 70% chance of winning.
That too is a big factor. Like in IPL 2024, Rajhastan Royals and SRH selcted the best team. Their think tank were wise and sharp. That is why they are enable to find the right combination and a perfect team. They have good analysis of players. They have more X factor players like Travis Head, Pat Cummins, Klassen, Buneshver kumar. Abhishek Sharma also clicked with a big impact. Same is the case of RR. They are now rebuild a strong balanced team. Team has many X factor players like Butler, Samson, Parag, Boult, Burger,Chahal, Sandeep Sharma, Ashwin. So both teams are winning even on batting friendly pitches of India.
Mumbai Indians this IPL 2024 is suffering at initial stage. Mumbai Indians replaced Rohit Sharma with Hardik Pandya as captain. MI unable to fight a very balanced and strong team for IPL 2024. The team is exposed. Also SRK Yadav is injured and Kishan is out of form. Bumrah, Hardik Pandya and Rohit Sharma are their X facctor players. But not all XI are plyaing their part. Their overseas selection is not performing at excellent level. Team combination is also suffering. Two big legends are in the team one joined the team sa captain and the other one is left by team managemnt. It also contributed negatively on the Mumbai Indians for IPL 2024.
Mumbai Indians lost plenty of followers on their social media platforms when Hardik Pandya replaced Rohit Sharma as Mumbai’s captain a few months back, and the Mumbai fans haven’t shown any mercy to their new skipper since the start of the tournament either. They have trolled Hardik at Ahmedabad and Hyderabad, and the crowd at the Wankhede can be even more brutal, given the history of IPL at this particular venue. Even Virat Kohli has been booed here in the past. Hopefully this backlash doesn’t dent Hardik’s confidence going forward. Can he put up a better performance and earn the trust of MI fans?
Mumbi Indians have not been helped by off-field issues which have threatned to derail their compaign this season if not being settled soon.
There is lot of pressure mainly on two big players, Hardi Pandya and Rohit Sharma to perform due to captaincy decision change.
9. Assessing the Pitch Conditions
In T20 World Cup 2024 match, Sri Lanka will rue the fact that they did not show application while batting and did not assess the pitch or the conditions well. That’s where the game was lost. Another 30-40 runs on this and it could well have been a different story. Srilanka scored only 77 runs on a tricky slow surface. If they score 120. They can be in a position to win the match.
10. Home Ground and Home Crowd Advantage
There is also advantage of home ground. Australia always has the advantage of being the home team. Same likely Sydney Sixers has the advantage as Sydney cricket ground is where they prepare and train. Play home matches here in BBL. Then there are the fans, who always cheer and up the confidence of the home team by slogans and pleasing smiles and voices. These boosts up the confidence and energy of the home team. Like India in India is difficult to beat as being the favorites on home ground and having local crowed advantages who came to see them on the venue in thounsads.
Hope you enjoy the sports blog on Pitch report and analysis of Bay Oval Mount Maunganui
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