Vettori maintains momentum

Daniel Vettori © Getty Images

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Daniel Vettori is convinced New Zealand’s one-day series win has given his side the belief they can exceed expectations and claim a Test series triumph over England as well.

New Zealand’s captain claimed all along that whoever won the one-day series would take the momentum into the three-Test campaign, which begins at Seddon Park on Wednesday.

But for all the importance placed on momentum, Vettori believes the biggest advantage gained by the one-day success has been the self-belief it has instilled into his squad that they can overcome the tourists in the next three Tests.

“We’re certainly confident we can win this series, but we’re also not under-estimating an England team who have played some pretty decent Test cricket,” said Vettori.

“I know they lost the series in Sri Lanka and lost to India but sitting back and watching it from here we were still impressed with certain facets of their play and they have played Test cricket a lot better than us, to be frank, for a number of years.

“We have a high opinion of them but I think the one-day series has been good for us in terms of learning a lot about their team and also, with us playing well, giving us confidence.”

Neither New Zealand, who have won just three of their last 10 Tests, nor England are in particularly good form with the tourists having lost their last two series, while they have won only three of their last eight since winning the Ashes in 2005.

England regard this series as key to building their momentum towards next year’s Ashes challenge, while New Zealand remain optimistic they saw enough in the one-day matches to indicate that the tourists may be vulnerable.

“I think we can take the momentum into this series,” confirmed Vettori.

“It’s certainly something we’ve talked long and hard about, the fact we wanted to carry on the good things we did during the one-day series.

Vettori is keen to maintain the ODI momentum © Getty Images

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“I think a lot of that is transferable. There are obviously some changes we need to make and our style of play and aggression that we take into a Test match because that’s probably something that has hindered us in the past.

“We’ve probably tried to play the game at too quick a pace so we’re making sure we take the good things from the one-dayers and try and rectify the things in our Test game that have let us down.”

Perhaps the key to New Zealand’s success will be wicketkeeper Brendon McCullum who has followed his outstanding performances in the one-day series with a stunning 170 off 108 balls - a domestic one-day record - to help Otago win the State Shield final.

McCullum must now prepare for a change of role by batting at number seven instead of the opening role he fills in one-day cricket, but Vettori expects him to continue playing aggressively even if he will have to temper it for the demands of Test cricket.

“He’s obviously got a completely different role for us batting at seven,” added Vettori.

“When you’re opening in one-day cricket you get a bit of a licence because you’re either setting up the game or you know exactly what you’re chasing so number seven is a completely different story.

“He’s still a pretty aggressive player so I don’t think we’ll see that aggression diminish but he’ll adapt to whatever situation he needs to.”

He added: “Being seventh in the world rankings is probably a reflection of the way we’ve played Test cricket over the last few years.

“That’s because we haven’t played much so we haven’t had many opportunities to make a better fist of it but we also haven’t played that well - we know we have a lot of Test cricket coming up and if we can beat England home and away then we know we’re on the right track.”

Vettori believes the Hamilton surface may dry out before the start of the game and is considering forming a dual spin partnership with Jeetan Patel.