Cricket: Black Caps target big first innings

Daniel Vettori is hoping his side can produce a big first innings total, like they did in recent tests against India. Photo / Getty Images

New Zealand's dreadful ODI run on the subcontinent in the second half of last year dominated the assessments of their recent cricket.

Certainly 11 straight 50-over losses was embarrassingly bad, cost jobs and brought a significant reshuffle around the national side.

But on the eve of the first test against Pakistan starting today, it's worth remembering they competed over five days twice with gusto against world No 1 team India in November.

They drew the first two tests, before being overrun in the third at Nagpur, but there were good elements to be drawn from the first two games.

"We competed in India because we scored big first innings runs and were able to stay in the game," captain Dan Vettori said yesterday. "So that's our first goal and [to] bring as much penetration as we can with the ball."

Brendon McCullum got a double hundred at Hyderabad in his first stint as a test opener, and there were centuries for fellow-opener Tim McIntosh, Jesse Ryder and, on debut, Kane Williamson during the series.

Chris Martin has demonstrated his abilities with the new ball remain intact, both in India and at Whangarei against the tourists this week; Tim Southee and Brent Arnel, assuming he gets the third seamer's spot, must both bring penetration to the table.

New Zealand's pool of talent has never been deep enough to have two large, distinctly separate groups of players for ODI and five-day cricket. Doubling up is the usual way, with a few tinkerings en route.

Vettori is confident his batsmen will switch back to five-day mode seamlessly.

"The nature of cricket these days is that you change from format to format, and good players make sure they can switch and that's what we have to do."

The Seddon Park pitch is not expected to be particularly quick - even groundsman Karl Johnson admitted as much yesterday - "but we'd like to have a little bit in it first up".

The heat and humidity of late have not helped preparations for a game in which the suspicion is there won't be much between the teams.

"They're a very different team to the one which came out last year, but they've still got some very good players and will be a handful," Vettori said.

Pakistan have suffered a late blow, with offspinner Saeed Ajmal returning home after the death of his father. That leaves the spin bowling in the hands of veteran left-armer Abdur Rehman, whose four tests have produced 20 wickets.

Of Pakistan's batsmen, only captain Misbah-ul-Haq really utilised the three-day warmup game in Whangarei this week, hitting 126 not out.

The top order were unconvincing, yet a glance at their test statistics - Younis Khan at 50.37 with 17 hundreds and 5440 runs, and a cluster of others averaging in the mid to late thirties - suggest they should be capable.

The Pakistanis have frequently talked of New Zealand being difficult opponents in their own backyard. One aspect of that is how well their batsmen cope with a ball doing a bit early on, if they bat first.

Pakistan might also have the hearing on the spot-fixing scandal in the back of their minds, too.

That started in Doha, Qatar, overnight and will decide the careers of former captain Salman Butt and their two best fast-medium bowlers, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Aamer.

But the tourists aver they're are keeping their eyes on the road ahead.

"That's a separate issue," Misbah said yesterday. "We are just here to play cricket. We have nothing to do with what is happening there."

NZ v PAKISTAN
Seddon Park, Hamilton, from 10.30am

NEW ZEALAND (from) Dan Vettori (c), Tim McIntosh, Brendon McCullum, Martin Guptill, Ross Taylor, Jesse Ryder, Kane Williamson, James Franklin, Reece Young, Tim Southee, Brent Arnel, Daryl Tuffey, Chris Martin.

PAKISTAN (from) Misbah-ul-Haq (c), Taufeeq Umar, Mohammad Hafeez, Azhar Ali, Younis Khan, Umar Akmal, Asad Shafiq, Adnan Akmal, Umar Gul, Abdur Rehman, Sohail Tanvir, Wahab Riaz, Tanvir Ahmed.