Dublin - New Zealand captain Tom Latham believes his emerging
players can help the Blackcaps take the Tri-Series in Dublin after they made a
winning start against Ireland.
The 51-run victory at Malahide was sealed by a career best
five for 50 from left-arm spinner Mitchell Santner and 79 from Neil Broom, but there
were also three wickets for opening bowler Scott Kuggeleijn on his one-day
international debut on Sunday.
"These guys called in have been putting in performances
back home for the last couple of years and we back them 100 percent," said
Latham.
"Our main goal is to win the Tri-Series and make the
selectors think and if they can keep putting performances on the board it can
only be good for New Zealand cricket," he added.
"Neil Broom played really well and the partnership he
built with George Worker (who scored his maiden fifty in only his third ODI)
put us in a position to get us close to 300.
"We haven't played cricket for a while, and it wasn't
the complete performance, but the guys came under pressure and played really
well," explained Latham, whose side next face Bangladesh in Clontarf,
another Dublin suburb, on Wednesday.
With seven New Zealand internationals taking part in the
Indian Premier League, rather than on tour in Ireland ahead of next month's
Champions Trophy one-day tournament in England, Latham was delighted at how his
youthful side performed under pressure.
Ireland were actually ahead of the Blackcaps after 38 overs,
needing only another 80 from the last 12 overs with five wickets left to reach
their victory target of 290 and claim their first top eight scalp outside a
global tournament.
But the next over saw the return of Santner and in it he
claimed the wicket of debutant Simi Singh to spark an Ireland collapse which
included the vital wicket of Niall O'Brien, stumped by Luke Ronchi for 109, the
former Leicestershire wicket-keeper's first ODI century in his 85th match.
"Ireland played beautifully and Niall's innings put us
under pressure but the way Mitch came back and how Kuggeleijn bowled so
aggressively, that we are used to back home, it was a good response," said
Latham, who was captaining New Zealand for the first time, in place of Kane
Williamson who is still at the IPL.
"I enjoyed the captaincy and the win is good for the
confidence although I have a couple of experienced guys to lean on and bounce
ideas off.
"We played Bangladesh not so long ago, we know how strong they can be and we'll see what conditions are like. It'll be interesting to see what the wicket is like and we'll adapt our plans accordingly."