Cricket: Soul-searching for Black Caps

By MARK GEENTY in Northampton

A tense honesty session is being credited with hauling New Zealand's flagging tour of England up from its lowest ebb.

Things may still not be all rosy, but the tourists at least will drive to Manchester today with a hint of renewed confidence after two wins over county sides ahead of Thursday's tri-series opener against England.

Yesterday they scraped past Northamptonshire by five runs after a cool final over from senior statesman Chris Cairns, two days after a convincing five-wicket hiding of Essex.

Rewind several days, and the strain on New Zealand faces was clear after their humiliating 3-0 test series loss, then a shock defeat by county battlers Derbyshire.

Allrounder Jacob Oram said what followed was one of the most eye-opening meetings of his international career as the tour threatened to go off the rails.

"After Derby, I wouldn't say it was the end of the world but it was on that path. We had a huge soul-searching session, a few home truths came out for everyone.

"We were going out there trying to play as individuals when cricket's a team sport. That's what we based our success around in New Zealand and we had gone away from that.

"Our confidence was down and we just had to open up a bit more. We've played a lot better cricket against Essex and here, but a lot of it's got to do with the fact we have turned a few attitudes around.

"The last four or five days have been really good, the guys are back on the path to some winning cricket."

Oram said the meeting was chaired by the team's sports psychologist, Gilbert Enoka, who got the players to speak their minds and regroup.

"It's not that we started to hate each other ... we had just tried so hard we forgot about the basics." The real test of the mental cleansing will come on Thursday night at Old Trafford against a super-confident England side, who are the bookmakers' favourites for the series, which also involves the West Indies.

New Zealand's final shakedown was satisfactory without being spectacular as they posted a barely average 253 against Northamptonshire, with Brendon McCullum top-scoring with a polished 58 off 56 balls.

The tourists struggled at the top without two of their batting matchwinners, captain Stephen Fleming and Scott Styris, who were rested.

Fleming wasn't even present, having been granted leave to recharge, which he did by attending the Red Hot Chilli Peppers concert with friends in London's Hyde Park.

Rain saw the home side's target reduced to 247 off 48 overs and despite sharp opening spells from the ever-improving Daryl Tuffey and James Franklin, two South Africans nearly stole it.

Test player Martin van Jaarsveld benefited from some more rusty New Zealand fielding in his 102 off 118 balls, and compatriot Gerard Brophy slogged 57 not out off 41.

It was all down to Cairns, with 11 needed off the final over, and he conceded just five singles.

- NZPA