England vs New Zealand Prediction & Betting Tips - Netball World Cup 2023

Prediction published on 04/08/2023, 16:00  by Devesh Jaganath

The first semi-final of the Netball World Cup 2023 will feature England taking on New Zealand on Saturday. These sides also contested the 2019 semi-final in England, where New Zealand emerged victorious. However, this time around, it is England that are in the ascendancy, having topped Group B with three wins in three and remaining unbeaten in the tournament. They finished their group stage matches with a perfect record of three wins in three, overcoming Malawi, Scotland and Barbados. Since then, England demolished Fiji 89-28, but their most impressive result to date came in their last match, where they beat the world number one, Australia 56-55. With that, they are now on a seven-match winning streak dating back to January this year. Having seen their opponents held to a draw by South Africa and lose their last match, England will be quietly confident about their chances of claiming a crucial win in this one. 

Meanwhile, despite a couple of poor results, New Zealand can never be counted out of any contest. The Silver Ferns are the current world champions after beating Australia in a nail-biter in 2019  by a single goal. Like their opponents, New Zealand won their group, which featured Uganda, Trinidad and Tobago and Singapore, with a perfect record. They scored 210 goals while conceding just 90, which was the lowest of any side during the group stages. However, they were unable to overcome the host nation South Africa, who held them to a historic draw, while the Jamaicans managed to overcome them 59-48 in their last match. Still, New Zealand have beaten the English in their last two encounters, which includes a 55-45 victory earlier this year in the Quad Series and will know they have enough class in their ranks to pull off another win here when it counts.