Cricket: Fleming urges patience on eve of test

BIRMINGHAM - New Zealand's top-order batsmen have been challenged to be patient in building their innings during the first cricket test against England, starting at Edgbaston tonight (NZ time).

Skipper Stephen Fleming has urged his batsmen to knuckle down to big partnerships and to grind down a new-look England.

Batting session by session has been identified as a method of gaining a psychological advantage over England, who are warm favourites to open the four-test rubber in winning fashion.

Fleming said he believed that if any two of the top five New Zealand batsmen got established and forged big partnerships, England would be on the back foot.

He advocated a cautious approach at the start of the innings from Matthew Horne and new opening partner Roger Twose to see off the new ball.

"Somewhere along the way we are going to have an Astle or a McMillan play a flamboyant innings but the base has to be laid down first so we can let these guys play their natural game," he said.

With Twose, Horne will have his fourth opening batting partner in 16 tests. Twose has been preferred to 21-year-old Wellington opener Matthew Bell, who scored 19 in the tour match against the British Combined Universities.

Twose, who was tried unsuccessfully as a test opener against the West Indies in 1995-96, is upbeat about his prospects against the England pace attack of Dean Headley, Allan Mullally, Alex Tudor, Andy Caddick and Chris Silverwood.

"It is going to be a huge challenge but I'm keen to take it on - in fact, I'm more than happy," Twose said. "I'm not the most technically adept player in the world and it won't always look pretty but hopefully I can perform in that role."

Setting substantial totals has been one of the Black Caps' Achilles heels, but two warm-up victories against British Universities and Somerset revealed the strokemakers to be in good touch.

This, coupled with bowling success, has given the New Zealanders a real sense of aggressive determination to show the English public and their critics that they are an exciting side with several star players.

Some English pundits believe Australia are the only cricket team in the Pacific and that New Zealand should stick to rugby.

Fleming said there was a desire in the New Zealand camp to prove them all wrong.

Strike bowler Simon Doull, who is itching to have a crack at top English batsman Graham Thorpe, said the team were ready for the challenge.

"People who have written us off haven't seen us play decent cricket," he said. "But we've got a lot of guys now who have played a bit of test cricket. There's that feeling among the guys that we can win test matches."

His new-ball partner, Geoff Allott, also has a point to prove in England, at least in the longer version of the game.

Joint holder of the record for most wickets taken in a World Cup (20), Allott is now eager to show he is a better test bowler than his average of 77.41 suggests.

New Zealand have other incentives and landmarks to spur them on, too.

A New Zealander has never scored a test hundred at Birmingham, and Doull needs just four wickets to become the 10th New Zealand bowler with 100 or more test wickets.

New Zealand: Matthew Horne, Roger Twose, Stephen Fleming (captain), Craig McMillan, Nathan Astle, Chris Cairns, Adam Parore, Dion Nash, Daniel Vettori, Simon Doull, Geoff Allott.

England (from): Mark Butcher, Alec Stewart, Graham Thorpe, Nasser Hussain (captain), Mark Ramprakash, Aftab Habib, Chris Read, Andy Caddick, Alan Mullally, Alex Tudor, Phil Tufnell, Chris Silverwood, Dean Headley. - NZPA