Cricket: 'Confidence is still there' - Black Caps shrug off warm-up thrashing to West Indies

Trent Boult of New Zealand celebrates as he takes a catch to dismiss Kemar Roach. Photo / Getty

Trent Boult is a realist. He knows conditions will swing wildly throughout the Cricket World Cup, and the Black Caps attack must be much more disciplined in the weeks ahead.

But he's also not about to panic after one warm up blowout against the West Indies where the Black Caps gave up 18 sixes and 421 runs on a Bristol ground with short, plundered boundaries.

The 91-run defeat, after reaching 330 in 47.2 overs in reply with Tom Blundell scoring a century, on a flat track was a sharp comedown from the seaming green top that helped the Black Caps rip through India at the Oval last weekend.

"A lot of credit goes to the way they came out and put us under pressure – and we felt the pressure, I suppose," Boult said after continuing his strong form with 4-50 from 9.2 overs.

The rest of the New Zealand attack, however, copped the full brunt of the West Indies' power. Shai Hope scored a classy century but Andre Russell and Jason Holder took the game away with 82 in 39 balls. In their time at the crease, many white missiles took some retrieving from adjoining apartment balconies.

"Plans will need to be sharpened up. We can talk as much as we want off the field and put these plans in place but putting the ball where we're talking about is the main thing as well.

"These West Indies guys like to play their shots, and they definitely played a few out there today so it was good to be under pressure."

Adjustments are swiftly needed before the Black Caps open their World Cup campaign against Sri Lanka in Cardiff on Saturday.

The balance of who shares the new ball for that match with Boult must have tilted in Tim Southee's favour. Though far from alone, with figures of 2-107 from nine overs Matt Henry went to all parts of Bristol.

Quizzed on how to peg back over rates that, for all his team-mates, exceeded eight against the West Indies, Boult said: "The shift has to be done when you're out there in the battle.

"One day cricket is becoming an extended version of T20 cricket in my opinion so if you can make those big 15, 17, 18 run overs into 12 run overs that can make a big difference.

"As an attack if we get hit for six we're looking to put that behind us as quick as we can
and try get back on the ball. That's a big challenge, and definitely hard on the smaller grounds and the good wickets, but if we're clear on that we'll go a wee way in this tournament.

"It's nice to experience some different conditions. It would be obtuse of me to think we'd be facing conditions like the Oval on every occasion so it's nice to get a feel for a good wicket and be put under a bit of pressure as well.

"Confidence is still there and we're looking forward to starting this tournament."

From in charge at the Oval to under the cosh in Bristol, Kane Williamson had a torrid time trying to stem the West Indies free-wheeling style but he, too, remains confident this squad will come good when it matters.

"It's a small ground and the West Indies side has a huge amount of power so you combine those two and when they get going it can be a very challenging task," the skipper offered of his juggling act.

"In some ways it's probably going to be a reflection of what we may see throughout this tournament where we're not 100 per cent sure the surfaces we're going to be on.

"We know we'll be expecting some high scoring affairs but it certainly wasn't that the other day.

"You can't ask for too much more when you have warm up games where you get guys executing different skills and you get guys coming here on a small ground, on a good surface, put under a huge amount of pressure.

"I thought the guys stuck at what they were trying to do and we did create a number of opportunities that on another day may go to hand."