Christchurch, January 2:

New Zealand will be looking to put a summer of stalemates behind them when they face the West Indies in the second one-day international on Saturday.

The home side were on top in the first one-day on Wednesday in Queenstown before rain brought an early end to the game. When the rain came, the West Indies were struggling at 129-5 in the 36th over. “It’s obviously disappointing the game was cut short because the little bit we did see, we managed to get in a very strong position,” said coach Andy Moles.

West Indies captain Chris Gayle conceded that New Zealand had the upper hand and the home side are keen to continue their momentum from that match. New Zealand did not lose a ODI series last year and a clean sweep against the West Indies would lift them to fourth in the world rankings. Much of New Zealand’s success has been put down to astute planning with a specific blueprint for each player.

“The one-day format of the game, we have good history in and we showed again when we applied pressure (in the the first ODI) the team looked very dangerous,” Moles said. “We spoke about certain areas we wanted to bowl to certain players and the guys performed really well,”Moles added. New Zealand’s cause was also helped by the absence of key West Indian batsman Shivnarine Chanderpaul, who missed the first match with a hand injury and remains a doubt for the second encounter as well.