Adam Parore: Philosophies put to the test

Watch for contrasting philosophies from New Zealand and Sri Lanka in the one-day series starting in Queenstown today.

I'm confident New Zealand are good enough to win all four games, provided they play up to their full potential.

Sri Lanka are a decent side, capable of beating most teams on their day. But they tend to be tougher overseas than in New Zealand conditions.

Their bowling relies heavily on Chaminda Vaas and Muttiah Muralitharan. Left-armer Vaas has been round a while and does a good job. Muralitharan can be a real handful and has wrought havoc on the best batting lineups. But take those two out and there's not much else.

So the policy for New Zealand will most likely be seeing Muralitharan off, restricting the damage he does. If that sounds negative, consider Murali has played 27 ODIs against New Zealand and grabbed a whopping 47 wickets.

So they should settle for something like one for 30-35 off his 10 overs on the basis they will be able to make up for lost ground against the other bowlers.

Take a look at the way teams are changing their attitude to the late-overs dash.

Not that long ago, sides looked to preserve wickets and have a real crack over the last five or six overs. Now many teams look at the final 12 to 15 overs for that late charge.

If New Zealand don't manage 10 to 12 runs per over in that last dozen or so overs they'll be disappointed.

By contrast, I'd imagine the Sri Lankans will be happy to pick up eight an over through the same period.

And that ties in with one of the main differences in the approach of both teams.

New Zealand teams generally look for a combined effort of about five or six batsmen, often around places four to nine in the order, to share the burden of getting sufficient runs.

Consider that New Zealand have hit just 52 ODI hundreds ever, of which Nathan Astle has 15. Of the other current squad members, Stephen Fleming has six, with Scott Styris, Chris Cairns, Lou Vincent and Hamish Marshall also having reached three figures.

Now look at Sri Lanka's batting and you can see the contrast.

They lean heavily on their batsmen from No 1 to 4 to make a big score, to really pile on the runs, making them less reliant on the lower order having to get them out of a jam.

Veteran opener Sanath Jayasuriya has played 345 ODIs, hit 18 hundreds, and is back in favour after being axed for their recent Indian tour. He's a dasher and doesn't mess about.

The likes of captain Marvan Atapattu, Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene are quality batsmen. But if New Zealand's bowlers can slice through the top of the Sri Lankan batting, they will have gone a long way to winning.

Taken as a whole, Sri Lanka rely on individuals. New Zealand - and Australia for that matter - operate better as a unit where several players make significant contributions.

New Zealand should go into today's match in good heart.

They lost the three-game series to Australia but must feel they went toe-to-toe with the Aussies for a big chunk of the contest. Indeed, they will know they should have won it, and should be confident they can match Australia in high scoring games.

New Zealand bowlers had problems at the death against Australia and that's where special interest will centre today.

They don't have many options outside the bowlers in the present squad, so coach John Bracewell has to see which combination of Kyle Mills, Chris Cairns, Jacob Oram, Shane Bond or Scott Styris works best in the final overs.

It's not easy, needs cool heads and clear thinking, but it's something which must be resolved because it's becoming a disease.

And if they want to have any hope in the 2007 World Cup, it's a disease that needs to be cured quickly.

* Adam Parore is a former New Zealand cricketer.