New Zealand confident of India upset

AUCKLAND, Feb 5 (AFP): New Zealand are quietly confident of being able to exploit the green state of the Eden Park wicket and upset India in the first Test starting in Auckland on Thursday.

A combination of a bowler-friendly pitch and the success of the same XI, who won back-to-back Tests in similar conditions against the West Indies in December, meant the selection was a no brainer for captain Brendon McCullum.

"It's a bit of both. It's a nice luxury to be able to continue with the same team, and obviously the pitch as well," he said Wednesday.

It was definitely a bowl-first wicket, he added, with New Zealand intent on continuing the short-pitched attack that proved to be India's undoing in the just completed one-day series won by New Zealand 4-0.

The home captain was also unphased by the huge gulf in the rankings between the two sides, where India are second to New Zealand's lowly eighth.

"We know how tough a challenge it is but we've got a quiet confidence that if we continue to bowl and field as well as we have done this summer then we can expose some of the not-so-strong aspects of their game."

The pitch has "a decent covering of grass" and the promise of more bounce than when New Zealand had England on the ropes here last year, only to be denied victory by a heroic century from Matt Prior on the final day.