The BLACKCAPS will look to take advantage of some green shoots of confidence when they meet Pakistan in the second Twenty20 cricket international in Hamilton.
Under stand-in skipper Ross Taylor and with new coach John Wright on board, New Zealand got back to winning ways when they defeated the tourists in the series opener in Auckland yesterday.
Coming of the back of 11 consecutive losses in one-day internationals, victory by five wickets and with 17 balls to spare was welcome relief.
"We don't want to get too carried away but it was a good start to a series," Taylor said.
"It has been well documented over the last couple of months that we haven't played as well as we would have liked. I'm sure the win will get a bit of confidence in the team. Hopefully we can continue that."
The match was highlighted by a hat-trick for pace bowler Tim Southee, who finished with five for 18 from his four overs, and a quick-fire half-century from Martin Guptill.
Taylor pointed to Wright's influence in the way Guptill, who smashed four sixes in his 28-ball 53, went about setting the foundation for New Zealand's run chase.
"With John coming into the side, he's tried to get everyone to trust yourself and go out and play instinctively," he said.
"The way Guppy went out there, there was definitely that."
The selectors gave debuts to Canterbury batsman Neil Brownlie and teenage Central Districts pace bowler Adam Milne.
While Brownlie had a role in Southee's hat-trick by helping to snare the first victim, Younis Khan, with a catch in the outfield, his own spell at the batting crease amounted to just five runs.
Milne. 18. also had a tough introduction, returning figures of none for 46 off his four overs, but he did show he could push the ball through.
Taylor was happy with the performance of his provincial team-mate, believing Milne was unlucky on occasions with nicks and edges leading to runs.
"He's 18 and he showed good pace and control for a youngster," he said.
"Even though he was getting a bit of tap around the field, he still kept a level head and he's got a big future."
Regular skipper Daniel Vettori, who is sitting out the three-match T20 series to rest a back injury, also gave Milne's debut effort the thumbs-up, saying he was impressed by what he saw.
"It's a real asset to a team if you can throw the ball to a guy who can run in and bowl as quickly as he did," he said.
"The results didn't go his way, but if you analyse his performance ball by ball, he bowled pretty well. If we can get some games into him, he will be the better for it."
Meanwhile, Pakistan captain Shahid Afridi said building partnerships and bowling in the right areas would be improvements needed by his side at Seddon Park.
While he would have liked a score of 160-plus at Eden Park, he still thought the 143 for nine Pakistan managed was defendable.
"There were a few areas we should bowl more consistently to and we didn't bowl there."
NZPA
