New Zealand aims to bounce back

DUNEDIN , FEB 22.New Zealand claimed today it could bounce back from the battering it took in the opening match against Australia in the remaining four one-day cricket internationals.

New Zealand crashed to a five-wicket loss after a weak innings of 122 in the second one-dayer in Auckland on Saturday. The first match was abandoned because of rain.

``It was a bad performance and we're not denying that,'' New Zealand's top one-day batsman Nathan Astle said before the third one-dayer at Carisbrook tomorrow.

``But that's the first one we've had for a long time and we've played pretty consistent one-day cricket from the World Cup until now.'' ``We're still pretty happy, it was just one of those days where we didn't bat well. There's no worries in the camp yet.'' Astle said he would look to make amends for Saturday's first ball duck on a ground where he scored 95 just over a year ago to help New Zealand beat South Africa by three wickets.

New Zealand recently punished some loose bowling to inflict a 5-0 series win over the West Indies, but Astle knows the Kiwi batsmen, including fellow opener Craig Spearman who may get his last chance to retain his place tomorrow, will have to wait for the rare bad ball against Australia. Another Kiwi under scrutiny is experienced wicket-keeper Adam Parore, who returned after an injury layoff on Saturday to score a duck and miss a catch and stumping chance he should have taken.

New Zealand: Stephen Fleming (captain), Nathan Astle, Craig Spearman, Roger Twose, Chris Cairns, Craig MacMillan, Chris Harris, Adam Parore, Scott Styris, Daniel Vettori, Warren Wisneski and Simon Doull.

Australia: Steve Waugh (captain), Adam Gilchrist, Mark Waugh, Matthew Hayden, Michael Bevan, Damien Martyn, Andrew Symonds, Shane Lee, Shane Warne, Brett Lee, Glenn McGrath, Ian Harvey and Damien Fleming.

Umpires: Steve Dunne, Doug Cowie. Third umpire: Evan Watkin.

-AFP.

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