The New Zealand cricket team returns to its happy hunting ground at Jade Stadium confident of wrapping up their one-day international series against Sri Lanka on Tuesday.
A win would put New Zealand firmly into fourth place in world rankings while Sri Lanka would drop out of the all important top six teams guaranteed direct entry into the Champions Trophy tournament later in the year.
New Zealand lead the five-match series against Sri Lanka 2-0 and relish the opportunity to return to the Jade wicket where just three weeks ago they produced a world-record run chase of 332 to beat Australia.
In their last 12 matches on the ground, New Zealand have won nine including the last five when in their favoured position of batting second.
Black Caps skipper Daniel Vettori said they would like to bat second again on Tuesday after easily topping Sri Lanka’s paltry 164 with seven wickets remaining in the opening match of the revived series played in Queenstown on Saturday.
The series is a continuation of the abandoned tour from last year when New Zealand led 1-0 before the Boxing Day tsunami hit Asia, including Sri Lanka.
New Zealand have kept an unchanged squad from Queenstown, and the Jade Stadium wicket is expected to provide another batting bonanza.
”We’ll look to bowl first and make the most of that supersub the second time round with Nathan [Astle]. It’s not 100% confirmed but I’ll be surprised if there are any changes,” Vettori said.
Despite their success in batting second, Vettori conceded he would like the team to mix up their approach in case they became too accustomed to hunting a target instead of setting one.
The team also have to consider the wickets they’re likely to face in the 2007 World Cup. West Indian decks are prone to dying later in the match, which favours the team batting first.
”I would [like the option to bat first]. But it’s also about balancing up what’s best for the team and how to push the team forward,” Vettori said.
”At the moment we just want to win games and we see chasing as our best option of winning them.”
If New Zealand’s frontline bowlers Shane Bond, Kyle Mills and Jacob Oram can repeat Saturday’s performance in extracting the extra bounce to harass the Sri Lankans, the remaining matches at Wellington and Napier will be dead rubbers.
Sri Lankan coach Tom Moody said he did not expect any major alteration to his squad, but whoever fronted had to cope better with the wicket.
The Sri Lankans had just two days to acclimatise before the Queenstown fixture which affected their performance, Moody said.
”We’ve come from subcontinent conditions and been in India for two months, then gone straight down into a very good bouncy cricket wicket and we didn’t adjust as well as we could.”
While he refrained from reading his team the riot act, the former Australian allrounder admitted there had been some frank discussions about their play in the opening one-dayer.
But he denied the team were lacking confidence after a string of defeats during their recent 1-6 series loss in India.
”Whether it’s confidence to execute their game in different conditions, or whether it’s self confidence, only time will tell, but the players are very determined to turn things around,” Moody said. – Sapa-AFP