Seam and swing bowler Tim Southee believes the BLACKCAPS can carry the momentum of a One-Day International (ODI) series win over Pakistan into the Twenty20 International (T20I) series between the two sides that takes place in Dubai on Thursday and Friday.
Daniel Vettori’s men came back from losing the first match of the three-game ODI clash by 138 runs to record back-to-back successes by 64 runs and seven runs respectively, and take out the Cool & Cool Cup presented by Bank Alfalah.
And even though Pakistan has beaten New Zealand in successive ICC World Twenty20 events in 2007 and 2009, Southee believes the ODI form will act as a real confidence boost for the BLACKCAPS.
“Pakistan have proved they’re a great T20 outfit – they’re the world champions – and they’ve got the wood over us in the last few outings,” he said.
“But hopefully we can carry some momentum from the ODIs into the T20 series and continue the form we’ve shown in the last couple of matches.
“I think we can take a lot from this series as its great the way we bounced back.
“We’ve got a little bit of momentum, hopefully we can make the most of that and turn in a couple of good performances to make it a pretty successful trip,” he added.
That ODI series win for the Black Caps almost didn’t happen, of course, thanks to a remarkable tenth wicket stand of 103 between Mohammad Aamer (73) and Saeed Ajmal (33) in the deciding game on Monday night in Abu Dhabi.
The duo took Pakistan to within eight runs of victory before New Zealand finally dismissed Ajmal allowing the celebrations to begin.
And Southee admitted that while logic said Pakistan would never actually win the match, there were doubts creeping in before the last wicket was finally taken.
“With them being nine down it was a question of saying it would only take one ball so we were pretty confident it would happen at some stage,” said the 20 year-old who impressed with 2-26 in his 10 over-spell.
“Then again, when it got to within 20 or 30 runs, everyone was a bit nervous and it gave us a bit of a scare.
“If they had been eight down then it might have been a different story but we were only ever one ball away from that last wicket.”
Southee has spent the series occupying the same slot as Saeed Ajmal, propping up the bating line-up at number 11 despite scoring 77 not out from only 40 balls on Test debut against England in Napier in March 2008.
And he is keen to move up the order and realise his potential with the bat as soon as he can.
“I’d love to get as far as I can with my batting,” he said
“You look at someone like Daniel Vettori, his batting over the last few years has been outstanding and it just shows you it can be done as he started at 10 or 11 when he was a youngster.
“It’s not going to happen overnight and hopefully slowly it progresses. It’s something I’m willing to work on as I don’t want to be batting at number 11 too much longer,” he added.
And Southee also gave an insight into the team dynamic on the tour without a coach following the departure of Andy Moles in the run-up to the trip.
“It’s been business as usual,” he said. “Dan and the support staff have been great and everyone’s stepped up and got their hands dirty where needed. We’ve coped well.”
The two teams go into the back to back Twenty20 matches on Friday and Saturday mornings (NZ time).
