Daniel Vettori was left struggling for superlatives to describe his side's 10-wicket annihilation of Zimbabwe.
Black Caps skipper hails perfect victory
New Zealand captain Daniel Vettori was left struggling for superlatives to describe his side's 10-wicket annihilation of Zimbabwe.
Chasing just 163 for victory in Ahmedabad, Kiwi openers Martin Guptil (86 not out) and Brendon McCullum (76no) knocked off the total with 16.3 overs to spare.
The win erases the disappointment of New Zealand's seven-wicket defeat to Australia last time out, and puts them in a strong position to qualify for the World Cup quarter-finals.
And skipper Vettori was delighted with the response from his players.
Crush
"It's the performance that we've been looking for," Vettori said.
"Now we have to replicate that against the some of the bigger nations.
"It was right from the start. The way we bowled, the discipline we showed and the performance with the bat from Guptill and McCullum was what we've been looking a long time for."
New Zealand's tournament opener saw them crush Kenya and Friday's result puts them alongside the South African side of 2003, as the only teams to have recorded two 10-wicket victories in a World Cup.
But when asked if such comfortable margins were leaving the middle order short on batting practice, Vettori said: "No, we're looking for that sort of performance where two guys take responsibility for the win.
"That's what we have to do in the big games coming up against Sri Lanka and Pakistan.
"Coach John Wright talked to the team long and hard about the batting and making sure we made the best use of the opportunities.
"It's a great wicket out there, plenty of runs in it. Brendon and Martin gave no one else a chance so that's great from our team's perspective."
Difficult
Zimbabwe skipper Elton Chigumbura was left to lament a batting display that saw the top half crumble for just 46 runs.
They were forced to rely on Brendan Taylor's 44 off 57 balls and Prosper Utseya's 36 off 65 balls to stretch the innings to the 47th over, but Chigumbura maintained it was the early stages that took their toll on his players.
"It was a very disappointing game for us," he said. "I think from ball one till the end, we were not in the game.
"Losing wickets is always difficult to come back from, especially if you lose three or four inside the first 15 overs.
"It's something that we have been doing wrong and we have to work on it for the next match."
