NZ 'need to rely on instincts'

Wellington - Bowling coach Shane Bond is calling on the New Zealand cricket team to use their instincts in the absence of any real knowledge about many of the South African players they'll come up against in the three-match Twenty20 series, starting in Durban on Friday.

According to the stuff.co.nz website, while there is very much a new look to the New Zealand squad, with five of the 15 players having been uncapped at international level, South Africa have also selected a radically different team to that which will play the two Tests and three one-day internationals.

Captain Faf du Plessis and bowlers Morne Morkel, Dale Steyn and Robin Peterson are the only frontline Test and one-day players in the squad, though New Zealand fans will recognise the likes of hard-hitting opener Richard Levi and left-armer Lonwabo Tsotsobe, who had some success in the shorter forms when the Africans toured these shores earlier this year.

Bond admitted they knew little about some of the South Africans, but they had taken the opportunity to pore over what footage they do have, and scan the SuperSport channels, to do as much scouting as possible.

"We get little bits of footage from the Champions League (which was held in South Africa) so there's a chance to sit down and have a look at some of the guys, but the footage isn't vast," he said.

"We're lucky we've got SuperSport, we've been able to flick through the seven channels and have a look at the range of (domestic) cricket games that are going on. It's given us a bit more insight.

"But for our guys, it's just about using our instincts on the field and getting a real quick feel and being able to adjust quickly. That's what Twenty20 is about, summing up the conditions quickly and the players you are playing against." 

The hosts will no doubt have also been scrambling for footage of the likes of Jimmy Neesham, Mitchell McClenaghan, Derek de Boorder, Corey Anderson and Colin Munro, and Bond said in that sense there was an even playing field.

"Both of the sides probably don't know a lot about each other, so in terms of that element I wouldn't say a psychological advantage rests with either side. It's just going to be about who plays the best cricket."

He also felt the "even" nature of Twenty20 cricket meant other factors such as the gulf in rankings between the two teams would be irrelevant.