New Zealand: Martin Guptill, Henry Nicholls, Kane Williamson (c), Ross Taylor, Tom Latham (wk), James Neesham, Colin de Grandhomme, Mitchell Santner, Ish Sodhi, Lockie Ferguson, Trent Boult
Australia: Aaron Finch (c), David Warner, Usman Khawaja, Steven Smith, Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis, Alex Carey (wk), Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon, Jason Behrendorff
Batting first, New Zealand could manage only 183, despite Grant Elliott's counter-attacking 83 off 82. Mitchell Johson, playing his last World Cup match, took three wickets 30 from his nine overs. James Faulkner, also probably playing his final World Cup match, took three for 36 from nine overs. Mitchell Starc, who is leading the wicket-takers' chart in this edition, took two. Aussies chased down the target at Melbourne Cricket Ground with relative ease, for a seven-wicket win and their record-extending fifth world title. Skipper Michael Clarke was the top-scorer with 74 off 72, while his successor Steve Smith hit 56 off 71 after David Warner set the tone with a 46-ball 45. Matt Henry took the wickets of both Warner and Clarke, while Trent Boult got Aaron Finch in the second over.
- Australia have won four of their last five World Cup meetings with New Zealand; Black Caps' only victory in that span coming on home soil (28th February 2015 in Auckland).
- New Zealand have won 13 of their last 15 completed World Cup matches, with one of those losses coming against Australia in the 2015 final and the other in their most recent such fixture against Pakistan.
- Australia have only tasted defeat once in their last 12 ODIs at Lord’s (W10, T1); winning on their previous two visits by the same margin (64 runs).
- New Zealand have won all three of their completed men's ODIs at Lord's, however, they have not played at the venue since 31st May 2013 when Martin Guptill hit an unbeaten century (103) in a victory over England.
- Mitchell Starc (Australia) and Trent Boult (New Zealand) were the leading wicket-takers at the 2015 Cricket World Cup; Starc has taken a competition-high 19 wickets at the 2019 edition so far, while Boult has nine.
- Australia have lost more wickets from overs 31-50 in the tournament (37) than any other team. New Zealand and India have lost the fewest (15).
- The David Warner-Aaron Finch opening combo has been prolific but they average 22.30 against New Zealand which is their lowest against any ODI opposition.
- Williamson needs 32 runs to reach 6000 in ODIs. He is also well on track to beat Martin Crowe's 1992 record for the most runs by a New Zealand captain in a World Cup.
- Finch who made four successive fifty-plus scores in last four matches, will become the first skipper to score five successive fifty-plus scores in World Cup. He currently shared the record with South African Graeme Smith (in 2007) and India’s Virat Kohli (in 2019).
"The conditions will be a little bit different to perhaps what they experienced the other day. It's also one of those things you can't control. So not worrying about it is probably the more important thing. So for us, it's once again, trying to adapt as quickly as possible, and stick to the sort of cricket that we want to play to give ourselves the best chance," Kane Williamson, New Zealand captain.
"He's [Kane Williamson] so damaging if you bowl wide, and he's so good off his pads that your length has to be really, really disciplined. You have to try and dry him up. It's like all great players; they don't have a huge amount of weaknesses, and on pitches that don't bounce a huge amount it's tougher to get that nick," Aaron Finch, Australia captain.
New Zealand: Martin Guptill, Colin Munro, Kane Williamson (c), Ross Taylor, Tom Latham (wk), James Neesham, Colin de Grandhomme, Mitchell Santner, Matt Henry, Lockie Ferguson, Trent Boult, Tim Southee, Henry Nicholls, Tom Blundell, Ish Sodhi
Australia: Aaron Finch (c), David Warner, Usman Khawaja, Steven Smith, Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis, Alex Carey (wk), Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon, Jason Behrendorff, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Shaun Marsh, Adam Zampa, Kane Richardson
The Kane Williamson-led New Zealand side had the best possible start to the showpiece event as they were unbeaten in their initial six games before going down against Pakistan. It is their bowling attack which has performed in every game but their batting looks a bit average.
Pacer Lockie Ferguson has led New Zealand's pace attack after bagging 15 wickets from six games. Trent Boult and Colin de Grandhomme have not been amongst wickets, however, they both gave good support to Ferguson after bowling economically. Boult and Grandhomme have nine and five wickets from six games but they have a decent economy of 4.46 and 4.47, respectively. The trio will once again need to replicate their show against an in-form Australian top-order.
In batting, the Kiwis have heavily relied on skipper Williamson and Ross Taylor to bail them out. In their game against Pakistan, batting-all-rounder James Neesham also gave a glimpse of how handy he can be with the bat. The Black Caps were once reeling at 46/4 against the Green Brigade before Neesham's 112-ball 97-run valiant knock propelled them to a fighting total.
With 414 runs from five innings, Williamson averages 138 and is at the fifth place in the list of leading run-getters. A lot will depend on him against a lethal Aussie pace attack as their top-order have disappointed so far.
As for Australia, they have shown improvement with every passing game. The Aaron Finch-led side have players who can rescue them out of any tricky situations.
Openers Finch and David Warner have been Australia's batting pillars. They are the top run-getters in this World Cup. While Warner tops the chart with 500 runs from seven innings, Finch is just four runs short of him from as many games. As a pair, the left-right combination has given great starts to the world champions.
The bowling has been fantastic so far as their two pacers -- Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins -- have been brilliant. Starc has 19 wickets from seven games while Cummins has scalped 11 from as many games.
Jason Behrendorff and Nathan Lyon have further added some extra depth in their bowling.
With such match winners, Australia will aim to strengthen their position at the top while the Kiwis will try to forget their dismal show in their last game and get back to the winning mode again.