Vettori: Confidence booster
This shows the confidence of the team. There's still quite a lot of young inexperienced players in there and some guys really stepped up today. They'll take confidence from it and hopefully take it into the T20s as well.
Daniel Vettori
Quotes of the week
New Zealand captain Daniel Vettori hopes to use their series win over Pakistan to build momentum for the upcoming Twenty20 contests in Dubai.
The Black Caps won a tense final ODI by seven runs on Monday to clinch the series over Pakistan in Abu Dhabi.
Pakistan tail enders Mohammad Aamer and Saeed Ajmal almost pulled out a remarkable victory with their final wicket stand of 103 before Ajmal holed out off Jacob Oram for 33 on the first ball of the final over.
His dismissal handed New Zealand a 2-1 win, their first away series victory over Pakistan.
"For us to come over here and win as confidently as we did in the last two games is something I know a lot of the guys will cherish," Vettori said.
"The wickets and the atmosphere are very similar to Pakistan - there's a lot of support for Pakistan here and it's like a Pakistan home game.
"The key thing is it's a victory and no matter how you achieve it, it's still a series win and tour wins for New Zealand sides away from home - we don't have that many."
New Zealand's innings of 211 all out was largely built on opener Brendon McCullum's knock, with the wicket-keeper following up his century in the previous match with 76 off 78 balls.
Pakistan's reply was looking all but over at 101-9 in the 34th over until 17-year-old Aamer, whose unbeaten 73 was easily the highest by any number 10 batsman in one-day international history, steered his side to the brink of victory.
Vettori however, said he had remained confident of a win and was happy to toss the ball to Oram for the final over.
"I always backed us to get a wicket. I think when you only need one wicket you probably try a bit hard to get it. We backed Jacob to do it - he's bowled the last over a few times for us and he's done a really good job."
Vettori also singled out the performances of player of the series McCullum, along with Tim Southee, who took 2-26 off 10 overs.
"Brendon played exceptionally well again - he's probably the only batsman who made it look really easy in the last two games while everyone else struggled a bit.
"Tim Southee was outstanding for a guy who's only played 20-odd one-dayers.
"This shows the confidence of the team. There's still quite a lot of young inexperienced players in there and some guys really stepped up today. They'll take confidence from it and hopefully take it into the T20s as well."
| Fixture |
|---|
| Wednesday 10th February |
| Tour Match T20 Tour Match |
| UAE vs England Lions |
| Thursday 11th February |
| One Day Int Third Match |
| New Zealand vs Bangladesh |
| Friday 12th February |
| One Day Int Third Match |
| Australia vs West Indies |
| Tour Match T20 Tour Match |
| Pakistan A vs England Lions |
| Sunday 14th February |
| Test Match First Test |
| New Zealand vs Bangladesh |
| Test Match Second Test |
| India vs South Africa |
| One Day Int Fourth Match |
| Australia vs West Indies |
| Tour Match T20 Tour Match |
| Pakistan A vs England Lions |
| Tuesday 16th February |
| One Day Int First Match |
| Afghanistan vs Canada |
| Kenya vs Holland |
| Result |
|---|
| Tuesday 9th February |
| ICC World Cup Qualifiers |
| Afghanistan vs Ireland Afghanistan won by 13 runs. |
| Canada vs Holland Holland won by 6 wickets. |
| One Day International Series |
| Australia vs West Indies Australia won by 8 wickets. |
| Test Series |
| India vs South Africa South Africa won by an innings and 6 runs. |
| Monday 8th February |
| One Day International Series |
| New Zealand vs Bangladesh New Zealand won by 5 wickets. |
| Sunday 7th February |
| One Day International Series |
| Australia vs West Indies Australia won by 113 runs. |
| Friday 5th February |
| International Twenty20 Match |
| Australia vs Pakistan Australia won by 2 runs. |
| One Day International Series |
| New Zealand vs Bangladesh New Zealand won by 146 runs. |
| Thursday 4th February |
| International Twenty20 Series |
| Afghanistan vs Canada Afghanistan won by 5 wickets. |
| Kenya vs Scotland Kenya won by 10 wickets. |
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