KEY POINTS:
No sportsperson likes to find themselves in a no-win situation but this is exactly where New Zealand find themselves.
Playing Bangladesh is exactly that. If they beat them then it is a case of "so they should" but if they lose then all hell would break loose. In fact, since there is little by the way of praise to be had from winning, and given the disappointing events over the past few months, then you could say there is everything to lose.
While on the surface this may be true there are things for NZ to take from the series and their cricket against the minnow if they look at it in the right light.
This New Zealand team is not stupid and they will not swan around thinking everything is hunky-dory should they clean sweep Bangladesh because the goal is always to beat the better teams and move up the ICC rankings. That chance will come later on this summer when England arrives. However being a good side involves beating the poorer teams too and doing so with a degree of dominance.
When the rains came in Napier New Zealand were in the process of dishing out a convincing hiding and in Auckland they conducted a solid no-frills execution. This is exactly what they must do.
They may not win the public's confidence or ease the media's concern over the next few weeks but they can win some valuable confidence and build a little solidarity for the team.
It had been the top order that has come under the most pressure of late and in this series comes the chance for far easier runs. For a batsman runs are runs. It's like hard currency. Hard-earned money is often garnered in a fashion that will lead to more but a little easy cash never goes amiss.
Jamie How, for example, was far from fluent in Auckland but against Bangladesh his graft was good enough to contribute and his reasonable score must have helped him play with more confidence at Napier.
Our cricketers want to measure up against Australia and at present many come up short. Getting beaten by Australia is nothing to be ashamed about so long as it helps you develop a style and quality of play that will see you beat those who play at the level below the world champs, which of course is everyone else.
There are areas for concern and that showed in the first one-dayer against Bangladesh when many Black Caps played with fear. That fear evaporated in Napier and should further dissipate as this series continues.
So there is something to be gained in this series. It is confidence gained from beating lesser players than you. It's not confidence that says our team is all of a sudden world class, but it is confidence nonetheless.
