David Leggat: NZ's Twenty20 experience more than enough to beat Pakistan

With the ODI series safely tucked away, New Zealand will fancy their chances of winning, or at least squaring, the two Twenty20 internationals which wrap up their short trip to the Middle East.

Rightly so too. Confidence will be up, they're getting set to pack their bags with only a couple of three-hour hitabouts to get through, right? Well, hold on, there's a couple of points here.

Firstly, it's a fair assumption that as the world Twenty20 championship only ended last June in England (and the winners? Have a stab), that particular International Cricket Council jamboree won't be rolling round any time soon.

Wrong. The next short form tournament with "WC" attached is in the Caribbean for two weeks from April 30, after New Zealand's home international programme ends, along with the latest Indian Premier League bunfight.

Between now and then, New Zealand have five Twenty20 internationals to get their act together. They were beaten in the second stage last June by Pakistan and Sri Lanka but will fancy their chances of again featuring prominently.

Secondly, New Zealand have played Pakistan twice in the shortest international form. And lost twice, so there is some business to attend to. The first was a semifinal at Cape Town in September 2007 - and to drop you into a time capsule New Zealand's scorecard included the names Vincent, Fulton, McMillan and Gillespie - the second at the Oval last June, both by six wickets.

New Zealand should have this game well worked out by now. They have played more Twenty20 internationals than any other major nation, 28, of which 12 have been won, 14 lost and two tied.

Pakistan have played 25 for a whopping 19-5 win-loss record, although they have had some soft wins - think Canada and Kenya.

Pakistan will be led by the showpony allrounder Shahid Afridi for this week's games, tomorrow morning and Saturday morning (NZT).

He was man of the match in both the semifinal and final in England this year and is a player who uses a small tree for a bat, thinks the forward defensive is for wimps and who announced this week that "I am becoming more and more responsible with my batting," to the sound of falling timber as cricket watchers worldwide fell off their chairs.

But Pakistan will start favourites and New Zealand should regard any loss of momentum gained from the 2-1 ODI win as poor business. New Zealand have a quality bowling attack. Shane Bond, Kyle Mills, captain Dan Vettori, Jacob Oram can provide an anchor to match the best.

But the batting needs attention. Certainly Brendon McCullum is in rich touch, after hitting 228 runs off 234 balls in the three ODIs and winning the player of the series award. However, elsewhere it's not all bells and whistles.

It's worth remembering that the hullabaloo over Mohammad Aamer and Saeed Ajmal's thrilling century stand which almost got Pakistan home in the deciding ODI on Tuesday came after not only a wretched Pakistani batting collapse, but another laboured performance by New Zealand's batsmen.

Whereas the ODI game can by comparison seem a drawn-out battle of wits, Twenty20 is more the foot-to-the-floor, first-across-the-line entertainment. But it's becoming more serious entertainment and leaving still without a short-form win over Pakistan will leave a strong whiff of an incomplete assignment.