Cricket: Black Caps eye steady approach to first test

1.00pm - By MARTYN WATTERSON

DHAKA - New Zealand coach John Bracewell has stressed the importance of showing patience in the first cricket test against Bangladesh starting here today (4.30pm NZT).

New Zealand are heavily favoured to inflict Bangladesh's 28th loss from 31 tests over the coming days at Bangabandhu National Stadium in their first full tour of Bangladesh.

Most of the local media have already written the hosts' obituary as they continue to pepper captain Stephen Fleming at press conferences with estimates of how quickly they will win the first match in the two-test series.

But Bracewell has urged his team to focus on the full five days as the Black Caps look to rectify some of their test match failings. They have won just one of their last 12 tests.

"We need to be disciplined we need to be more patient more accurate in what we do especially in the fourth and fifth day," Bracewell told NZPA.

"We have a gathered some information in terms of looking at ourselves and finding that's where we've lost tests and become quite weak. It's not the first innings but it's actually been the second."

If they won the toss, Bracewell said they planned to bat first with the onus on the senior batsmen to produce a total they could declare at, so three or four of their bowlers will not have to bat in the stifling Dhaka heat.

Bracewell named the same 12 players that fronted for the warmup match against Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) 11 yesterday, but his starting 11 will not be confirmed until just before play starts.

Fleming all but confirmed a fifth bowler would be added to the mix.

"With the heat we're looking at the extra bowler. There's enough batting in the side with the allrounder ability that we have got with Jacob Oram and Scott Styris. We'll probably take a pace bowler."

That would see Wellington left-armer James Franklin come in at the expense of Hamish Marshall who will probably carry the drinks.

Fleming also deflected talk of a quick result, with the side looking to avoid any talk of complacency against Bangladesh who were only granted test match status in 2000.

"We've played the last half a dozen test matches pretty poorly after being in positions of strength so we're in no place to take any test likely. Going into this one we're on edge which is a good sign," Fleming said.

"You have to guard against complacency. We respect Bangladesh as a side. When you stop respecting your opposition you make mistakes, especially when you force the pace so we're very aware of the tempo of the game. It let us down recently in England when we tried to push it too hard."

Meanwhile Bangladesh cricket fans got some unwanted news when their leading batsman and skipper Habibul Bashar was ruled out yesterday.

Bashar aggravated his injured thumb in practice last week and failed to recover.

Wicketkeeper Khaled Mashud will assume the captaincy duties.

Teams:

New Zealand (from): Stephen Fleming (captain), Mathew Sinclair, Mark Richardson, Scott Styris, Nathan Astle, Hamish Marshall, Jacob Oram, Brendon McCullum, Daniel Vettori, James Franklin, Paul Wiseman, Ian Butler.

Bangladesh (from): Khaled Masud (captain), Rajin Saleh, Javed Omar, Mushfiqur Rahman, Hannan Sarker, Alok Kapali, Mohammed Ashraful, Mohammed Rafique, Manjarul Islam, Tapash Baishya, Alamgir Kabir, Tareq Aziz Khan, Nafis Iqbal.

- NZPA