By Di O’Connell
After their blowout Twenty20 series loss to South Africa, the BlackCaps are keen to turn their attention to tomorrow's first one dayer in Wellington.
The change of format is a fresh start for New Zealand but a chance for the Proteas to extend their supremacy.
“It’s all about putting pressure on them and forcing errors – then that mental knock they got the other night will come through,” says South African captain, Ab de Villiers.
The visitors say they are above needling the BlackCaps about the loss and are instead leaving the verbal battle to the Twenty20 losers.
“The team that’s been talking the most are the New Zealanders, so it’s important we stay in our place,” says the South African coach Gary Kirsten.
And the BlackCaps are talking up their chances off the field.
“We had one slip up the other night and it was a rather big one. We’d rather focus on positives and what’s in front of us [rather than] five overs from the other evening,” says BlackCaps captain Brendon McCullum.
And it get worse for the BlackCaps, with the arrival of a trio of top Proteas performers for the one dayers, all rounder Jacques Kallis, fast bowler Dale Steyn and opening batsman Graeme Smith.
“There’s definitely belief we can beat them. They’ve got plenty of experience and world class players but we’re playing on our own conditions and we’ve got a pretty exciting unit as well,” says McCullum.
Despite the loss, history is on the BlackCaps side with the team beating the higher ranked Proteas in last year's world cup quarterfinal.
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