Cricket: Black Caps make trek into the unknown

Trent Boult of New Zealand. Photo / Depak Malik.

From the moment New Zealand looked at the itinerary served up to them by India, they will doubtless have wondered about Thiruvananthapuram.

The name fair trips off the tongue - Greenfield Stadium is easier on the mouth - but looms as a place to trip up the tourists' ambitions to finish the tour with a series victory which would leave them feeling pretty happy overall with the six-game tour.

Thiruvananthapuram, the largest city in the state of Kerala on India's southern west coast, has yet to host an international so the New Zealanders are in the dark as to how the pitch might play.

"We're going to a venue where there's not that much information. Guys haven't played down there so it'll be a little foreign," key swing bowler Trent Boult said yesterday.

The match offers a chance for a spot of redemption for New Zealand, after they'd also got their three-game ODI series to a decider and with it a chance for a maiden bilateral series win in India. Instead it went wrong, India winning by six wickets.

Now, on the back of Colin Munro's blistering century in game two of the T20 rubber at Rajkot on Sunday, not to forget Boult's useful four for 34, New Zealand, ranked equal No 1 in the shortest form with Pakistan, are again within touching distance of
a rousing series victory, even if rousing is a push when discussing T20 cricket.

Boult said his side had learned plenty of lessons in their loss in the opening T20 in New Delhi.

"It showed the characteristics of the side, to turn it around in such a short period of time and put on a performance like that," Boult said of the Rajkot win.

"We were definitely off our game and dropped catches - all these things added up, it wasn't acceptable. So to turn the tide, bat well, bowl well, and our fielding was one of the main things that was very good."

Boult has taken nine wickets in the five tour internationals, his five in the first two T20s costing just 16.6 apiece.

India are fifth in T20 rankings, eight points behind New Zealand and Pakistan, but they are desperately difficult to beat in their home conditions.

New Zealand start their home summer against the West Indies at the beginning of December.

It may be the least significant of the three forms of cricket, but there's no doubting coming home with a series win in India would be a strong way to go into the home summer.

Some rain is forecast for game day. The match starts at 2.30am on Wednesday (NZT).