National Bank coasted to a six-wicket win over Pakistan Customs in thePatron’s Trophy Grade-I tie at Jinnah Stadium in Gujranwala Saturday.A defiant knock of 103 from all-rounder Azhar Shafiq was not enough tosave the defending champions from going to last season’s runners-up,says a message here. National Bank, who were set a target of 147, werewell served by Pakistan captain Waqar Younis who slammed 64 off 65deliveries while batting at No 4.Waqar and Akhtar Sarfraz (21 not out) added 63 for the fourth wicketafter National Bank had lost three for 53. Earlier, Customs were ableto muster another 70 before being all out for 309 with the left-handedAzhar Shafiq scoring 53 of them to complete a well-deserved century,having resumed at 53.National Bank’s target would have been much smaller had Azhar Shafiqnot put on 53 for the last wicket with Tabish Nawab (7). Azhar battedfor three minutes short of four hours and faced 180 deliveries. Thechief destroyer on the final day was lanky international pacemanShabbir Ahmed three of the last four wickets. He finished with fivefor 72 in 23 overs.

After three days of wonderfully entertaining cricket in the first Castle Lager/MTN Test match, India folded up on the fourth day as South Africa swept to a nine-wicket victory and, almost certainly, a considerable psychological advantage in the three-match series.India had just about matched South Africa over the first two days, but the home side took a grip on the game during the third day and on Tuesday they squeezed the life out of the Indians.From a position of some respectability at 96 for one on the third evening, India lost their last nine wickets for just 141, leaving South Africa 54 to win. This they did with little difficulty despite losing the wicket of Herschelle Gibbs along the way.It was an efficient and sometimes exhilarating effort from the South Africans in a Test match that belted along throughout. The difference between the sides in the end was the fact that whenever the South Africans found themselves in a tight spot, they had the sense and the skill to wriggle out of it. India, by contrast, finally wilted under the pressure.The Indians will no doubt point to the absence of Harbhajan Singh as a major handicap, and he was badly missed as South Africa built their first innings total of 563. At the same time, India shot themselves in the foot by picking two left-arm seamers, Ashish Nehra and Zaheer Khan, neither of whom had bowled a ball in the country. On a pitch that had bounce and carry and assisted the bowlers prepared to put something into it, Ajit Agarkar was left on the sidelines.And so the South Africans were able to build a 188-run lead on the first innings, thanks, in no small part, to Lance Klusener’s return to form after a very ordinary year. Klusener’s 108 took the game away from the Indians and then Shaun Pollock turned the screws on the Indians during the fourth day.The South African captain had never taken 10 wickets in a match before this Test, but he had taken four for 91 in the Indian first innings and when the opportunity, or opportunities, presented themselves, he grabbed them.None of the Indians got going in the second innings. Or, rather, many of them did, but failed to carry on. VVS Laxman was caught at slip in the second over of the day for 29. SS Das was caught at the wicket, slashing wildly at Nantie Hayward in the third over for 62 and then Jacques Kallis struck a crucial blow for South Africa when he had Sachin Tendulkar caught at point.From there on India were doomed and they knew it. Makhaya Ntini, who had an indifferent game, produced a snorter of a ball to get Sourav Ganguly caught at the wicket (and, no doubt, ensure that the Indian captain gets any number of balls stuck up his nose every time he goes to the crease in the South Africa) and then Pollock worked his way down the order.He bowled Virender Sehwag off an inside edge for 31 and, after Nantie Hayward had trapped Anil Kumble leg before, finished off the last three wickets.There was some biffing and banging around from Nehra and Javagal Srinath as the last wicket pair put on 31, but eventually Neil McKenzie caught Nehra in the deep and Pollock had his 10th wicket.South Africa lost the wicket of Gibbs early in the quest for 54 runs, but Jacques Kallis joined Gary Kirsten, the captains agreed to forego tea and South Africa took just 59 minutes to wrap up victory.It was, as Indian coach John Wright conceded, an impressive effort from the South Africans. “They’re a very good team,” he said, adding that, “since the first day we’ve been outplayed. We didn’t put on enough runs on the second morning.””Today was a disappointing batting performance,” he said. “If you lose nine wickets in a day, you’re not going to win many matches that way.”

From the brink of disaster, New South Wales has grasped a thrilling ING Cup victory over Queensland by five wickets and with three deliveries tospare here at the Sydney Cricket Ground today.A captain’s knock – in the form of a wonderful century – from Steve Waugh (101*) and the fastest fifty of the season from left hander Mark Higgs(63*) turned the game around, completely swinging the momentum in favour of the Blues.Set a revised target of 250 runs to win from a rain-reduced maximum of 44 overs, the New South Wales upper and middle order found that greyclouds and strong winds were not their only problems. Andy Bichel (59* and 2/38), the man who had earlier slayed them with the bat, was alsolethal with the ball.But a timely, unbroken partnership of 105 between Waugh and Higgs ultimately saw them devastate a Queensland bowling attack that had beenwell on top by the time that the home team slumped to a score of 5/147. When they were joined, the Blues needed as many as 103 runs from amaximum 75 deliveries to win but they performed the job in cool and calculating style, with aggressive shots to both sides of the wicket.The Blues duly remained the only unbeaten team in the competition and also gained an important psychological edge over the Bulls ahead of nextweek’s Pura Cup game in Brisbane.Higgs smashed his way to the quickest fifty of the season with a brilliant innings that included six fours and one six. His running between the wicketswith Waugh was also a standout. Tasmania’s Michael Di Venuto and Queensland’s Andrew Symonds (each with half-centuries from 33 balls) hadpreviously held the record for this season, and Waugh was quick to acknowledge the outstanding effort of his young teammate in overhauling them.”He had an exceptional innings, his placement was excellent, he could not have played a better innings,” Waugh said.Higgs, too, believed it was probably the best he had ever seen the ball.”It was good fun. I’m not sure I have actually (hit the ball better). It was one of those better days,” Higgs said.The daring and brash manner of the partnership had a good-natured crowd chanting and clapping almost every ball after a day of stop-start cricket.After it had earlier caused a delayed start, rain also interrupted the second session of play and made life difficult for the NSW batsmen early. Thequick departures of Brad Haddin (0) and Mark Waugh (4) represented major setbacks and it was only when Steve Waugh and Michael Bevan(56) came together that the Blues’ batsmen genuinely found their feet.Even the national captain was fortunate to remain at the crease for as long as he did, though. On 11, the ball seemed to brush his gloves as heflicked at a Bichel delivery on the line of his hip on its way through to the hands of wicketkeeper Wade Seccombe. The Queensland appeal wasvociferous but umpire Terry Keel remained unmoved.Waugh also slashed twice into the vicinity of the slips cordon, but survived both times. On the latter occasion, the ball flew at head height betweenStuart Law and Martin Love but each seemed to believe it was the other’s catch.Around another rain delay that caused six overs to be wiped from the innings, Bevan was caught behind off the bowling of James Hopes (1/50) andMichael Slater (2) and Shane Lee (7) quickly joined him in the pavilion. It was Bichel who accounted for Slater by trapping him plumb in front, andLee was then caught brilliantly by Jimmy Maher, diving fully outstretched to his left.New South Wales’ problems looked to be mounting even further given that Waugh appeared at least once to need to stretch the calf which heinjured during the recent Ashes tour.Earlier, Queensland’s score of 7/274 owed much to the batting of Bichel, Maher (57) and Seccombe (37) at different ends of the innings. Bichelwas especially impressive as he clattered his way to his highest score in domestic one-day cricket in Australia. Like their opponents, the Bullssuffered a lapse in the middle stages of their innings, and it was essentially only Bichel’s ability to score at consistently better than a run-a-ball and hitshots into gaps that hoisted them to their final tally. With the combative right hander in great touch, as many as 17 runs were plundered from the 49thover of the innings.”He is an excellent cricketer who always gives 100% and who is always at you. He is one guy who always gives 100% so you have to respect him,”said Waugh of Bichel’s efforts today.The NSW pace attack lacked its usual potency, with Glenn McGrath (2/36) and Brett Lee (0/44) each struggling to make early incisions. NathanBracken (2/58) was impressive, though, and even snared the vital wickets of Love (30) and Maher with consecutive deliveries at one point. Albeitthat he was expensive at times, Stuart MacGill (3/56) also made an important contribution to the Blues’ win.

New South Wales coach Steve Rixon lauded Michael Bevan as the best cricketer he’s seen in a decade after the brilliant left hander steered the state to an improbable draw in the Pura Cup match against Western Australia here in Sydney today.”From what I’ve seen of Michael Bevan, he’s arguably the best I’ve seen in the past ten years,” said Rixon, after the former Test batsman’s double century had orchestrated the Blues’ escape from a disastrous 363-run first innings deficit.”He’s got a full range of shots, and he’s one of the few guys who can hit the full 360 degrees.”(Our guys) showed a lot of resolve and character and that’s the sort of thing that will get you into a ‘Shield’ final.”It was lavish praise, but praise hard to refute, after the tenacious Bevan (203*) produced the quintessential version of a captain’s innings to guide the Blues to a second innings score of 4/452 by the time that stumps were drawn half an hour before the scheduled close.It wasn’t only that he batted through the entirety of the fourth day, registered his equal highest first-class score, or became the greatest run scorer in New South Wales’ first-class history. Also stunning was his capacity to continue undisturbed by the bowlers for 562 minutes and forge significant partnerships today with teammates Mark Higgs (80) and Brad Haddin (52*).He had started the day on a score of 78, and with the Blues still facing potential ruin at a total of 3/188.But he was ultra-methodical, combining with Higgs in a stand of 181 runs that became the state’s highest for the fourth wicket against Western Australia at the SCG and then with Haddin in another of 85 at the end of the day.He had dodged bullets yesterday, as wicketkeeper Ryan Campbell spilt a chance with his score at 8 and as a dubious lbw decision went his way on 19. But, by the end of today, very little was left to detract from his marathon performance.”I felt I hit the ball well,” said Bevan after play.”I was under a bit of pressure out there and it was hard work, (but) it was satisfying.”When it’s that big a task, you’ve just got to say to yourself ‘alright, let’s get through this session’ and maybe set some personal goals.”And he was also quick to pay credit to his teammates.”(Greg) Mail and Higgs – they did the hard yards as well. They were good performances; it was good from their perspective as well.”Higgs and Bevan were eventually parted at the outset of the day’s final session, when the former top edged a mistimed sweep at Brad Hogg (2/102) to present Simon Katich with a catch at mid on.But splitting the partnership failed to dampen Bevan’s efforts or his passage into the record books.It was at 184 that the biggest of the milestones arrived – Alan Kippax’s mantle as New South Wales’ most prolific scorer of first-class runs seamlessly passing to the 31-year-old. On 203, he also equalled his own previous first-class best.Western Australian captain Katich, for his part, tried nine of his players at the bowling crease in a bid to shift his rival skipper – various part timers utilised and opening batsmen Mike Hussey (0/6) and Scott Meuleman (0/1) even becoming closing bowlers.But all of them found Bevan’s bat and a true pitch impossible barriers to overcome.Front line bowlers Brad Williams (1/73), Jo Angel (0/45) and Matthew Nicholson (0/61) also went without much in the way of luck at various stages of the innings as their team was forced to content itself with third – instead of second – place on the Pura Cup table.

Bangladesh does not mind being the new kid on the international cricket playground and an automatic target for the big bullies.In a frank and refreshing airport interview here today Trevor Chappell, the third of the famous Australian cricketing brothers and now coach of Bangladesh, said he had not been offended by forecasts of disaster for the Bangladeshi four-match, two-Test tour of New Zealand.Last month even the chief executive of New Zealand Cricket, Martin Snedden, said the official hope was that New Zealand should win the two Tests (at Hamilton and Wellington) with style, and overwhelming superiority.”That’s not a problem,” said Chappell – the temporary tour spokesman while the newly-appointed manager and assistant manager were delayed because of visa problems.”We accept that is the aim of every other team to beat us, they do not want to take any chances playing against a newcomer,” said Chappell.”That is a good attitude from our point of view, too. We have recently played Zimbabwe (losing the Tests 0-1 and the one-dayers 0-3) and they are closest to us on the ladder.”Now we are playing New Zealand, higher up the ladder, in New Zealand conditions, and that is good for us, an extra challenge.”Chappell and his captain Khaled Mashud said the Bangladeshi aim was to play positive cricket, to score runs at a good pace so the bowlers had time to bowl out the opposition. The positive attitude would remain as long as his team had a chance of success, said Chappell. When there was no chance of a win, then Bangladesh would look for a draw.The wonder is that Bangladesh have made as much progress as they have, playing seven Tests and close to 40 one-dayers, with very narrow home playing resources.There are six first-class sides in Bangladesh, in spite of the 130,000,000 population now adopting cricket as their favourite sport, and a first class competition has only been running for two years.Now Bangladesh has a five-year plan in place. Five new first-class grounds are planned, five Sri Lankan coaches are setting up the infrastructure for Under-13, 15, 17 and 19 organisations.It will take time, said Chappell, to identify the good players and to bring them up through the system.Some teenagers have already been fast-tracked to Test level.”Mashrafe Mortaza, is one of these,” said Chappell. “Eight months ago no-one knew anything about him, he came from nowhere as quite a quick bowler. He was looked at for the Under-17, then the Under-19 and the next thing you know he is in the national side.”He is reasonably fast, in the 130-140kph range. He has a lot to learn, but he can hurry-up the batsmen when he lands the ball in the right place.”Mashrafe is listed as born in 1983, one year older than the 17-year-old prodigy Mohammad Ashraful, who became the youngest scorer of a Test century against Sri Lanka earlier this year – and also the youngest to score a century on debut.Chappell is warm in his praise of Ashraful’s batting, and his promise as a leg-spinner.Chappell also realises that his team is young – several older players were discarded – and faced a steep learning curve.”We will have to work hard on the basics. Our players have had only two seasons of first-class cricket and have yet to face the demands of a match over five days.”Chappell said he could not be precise when asked to rate the strength of the present New Zealand team, although he had been most impressed with the New Zealanders’ deeds on the first and second days of the third Test against Australia at Perth.He mentioned Chris Cairns and Daniel Vettori as world-class bowlers, was impressed by the sudden rise to fame by Lou Vincent, and respected the run-scoring power of Stephen Fleming, Craig McMillan and Nathan Astle.

Tasmania have announced the following team for the ING Cup match against South Australlia on 6 Jan at Launceston:Jamie Cox (c), George Bailey, Sean Clingeleffer, Graeme Cunningham, Michael Di Venuto, Xavier Doherty, Scott Kremerskothen, Daniel Marsh, Adam Polkinghorne, David Saker, Shane Watson, Damien Wright, Shaun Young.

Chickenpox victim Nathan Bracken could play for New South Wales against Victoria later this week – but at least one of the Blues’ ailing batters might miss out.Paceman Bracken bowled only eight overs in South Australia’s second innings of the four day Pura Cup cricket match which ended in Adelaide yesterday.With fellow quicks Brett Lee and Glenn McGrath on international one day duty, the faltering Blues badly need Bracken on board for the Pura Cup match against the Bushrangers starting in Sydney on Friday.Bracken, who was diagnosed with chickenpox on day three of the game in Adelaide, should be named in the NSW team on Tuesday, though a shadow player willbe put on standby.”He (Bracken) will be under some scrutiny until probably as late as Thursday night before the game,” NSW chairman of selectors John Benaud said.”At this stage, the suggestion is that he should be fit, that it is a mild dose of chickenpox so we can only wait and see on that.”Bracken’s illness was the latest setback for an NSW team which struggled over the last two months after making a strong start to the season.Benaud said middle order batsman Graeme Rummans and Matthew Phelps were exerting pressure on a misfiring Blues batting line-up that included an out of sortsMichael Slater.While much had been written about the ex-Test opener’s lean trot, Benaud said the discarded international wouldn’t be treated differently to any other player.”Just because he is a former Test player, I don’t think that really changes the equation at all – he’s just another member of the team who is under pressure,” Benaud said.NSW emerged without a point from its last three Pura Cup games and looked likely to drop to fourth place after the current round.In the ING Cup one day tournament, early season pacesetter NSW dropped to third after losing three of its last four fixtures.NSW dropped Darren Lehmann three times during his quick-fire century in Adelaide and Benaud was also concerned about a batting line-up which struggled with the exception of youngster Michael Clarke.Benaud stressed NSW was still very much in the hunt for finals spots in both formats but acknowledged the Blues needed to improve significantly following its 67 run outright loss in Adelaide.”We need to lift our game fairly substantially. I think our fielding and batting in the last game it would be fair to say was ordinary,” Benaud said.

Pleasantries are over, mutual admiration for deeds over recent months has been dispensed, now is the time for a good old-fashioned ding-dong battle to commence.It may be the one-day prelude to the real thing, but One-Day Internationals in the year leading up to a World Cup take on much more importance.New Zealand are looking for a Cup-winning formula for their team, England are looking for a team.That’s the reality as the two sides line up at a rapidly-changing Jade Stadium. Anyone with a memory long enough to remember the ground when it was called Lancaster Park will be stunned when they see the change that has come over the familiar concrete terraces on the western side of the ground.Now there is a stand, as one member of the New Zealand team put it yesterday, that “makes it look more like Melbourne than anything else”. There’ll be no problems now with the north-westerly blowing across the ground, this is a pretty sizeable obstruction. Rugby fullbacks the world over will breathe collective sighs of relief.Cricketers are not so lucky, they have no idea what effect the changes may have on the dynamics of the ground.Where there may be a problem, especially by the time two Super 12 rugby matches are played on the ground before the start of the first Test in mid-March, is light. Light for viewing, light and heat for drying and growth, light for playing.But that is all in the future. For tomorrow, the lights of the ground will be on two teams looking to get things right.The New Zealanders, having been paraded around Australia at the marketeers’ insistence, could rightly claim to be feeling more than a little knackered.CLEAR Black Caps captain Stephen Fleming insists the sheer delight at being home, in familiar environs, will be enough for his team to get themselves up and ready for an England team keen to build on the work they have done in India.Nasser Hussain has already thrown out advice to his accompanying media pack. This is a long-term campaign to pick up the art of playing one-day cricket to the level that most other Test-playing nations had sorted out years ago.It has always amused those living outside England that, for a country which plays so much one-day cricket at domestic level, the national team cannot get it right in international play.Anyway, at least the English have recognised that floggings in the two World Cups held since they were thumped in the final of the 1992 Cup is more than any country should take and they are endeavouring to achieve a higher consistency in their play.One-day cricket remains a funny thing however. New Zealand have been looking for consistency for years, not only in performance but in team personnel. Every time things look like coming right, another bowler goes down with a malady of some injurious kind.The curse struck again this week when the very answer to NZC’s marketing department prayers, Shane Bond, was forced out of the summer with a suspected stress fracture of the ankle.They are also looking for a successful opening batting partnership. This is the equivalent of the hunt for the long extinct moa. Ever since someone decided that the then greatest run scorer in New Zealand domestic one-day cricket, Bruce Edgar couldn’t open the innings, and the John Wright-Edgar partnership was broken up, the opening position has been a problem.Nathan Astle could claim to be suffering the wallflower syndrome. You know, the girl at the dance who is forever unemployed. He wants to dance to full effect but no-one wants to dance with him.It is bizarre that one player can be comfortably ensconced as the most prolific one-day batsman in the country’s international history, yet have seen more partners off than Elizabeth Taylor in triplicate.Runs. Runs at the top of the order make all the difference in the one-day game. Everyone down the order can breathe a little easier and play more like their own game.Without them life becomes miserable, and to further complicate New Zealand’s plot, the new bouncer law has been thrown in for good measure.Chris Nevin, who could rightly claim he should never have been discarded anyway, gets his chance in these first two games. Lou Vincent drops down the order. Would it be too much to expect that the nearest equivalent to Jonty Rhodes in the field in the New Zealand game could acquire some of the same gentleman’s batting habits as witnessed to such good effect over recent weeks.England could ask, have they found their genuine all-rounder in Andrew Flintoff? What is the future for Craig White? What damage can the impressive left-handers Marcus Trescothick and Nick Knight do to New Zealand’s attack?New Zealand will know by the end of the series if Daryl Tuffey has a future in the One-Day International scene. They will know whether the prospect of two fast men opening the bowling looms with Ian Butler and Bond. They will also know just where Andre Adams fits into the overall scheme of things.It is a fascinating series in prospect.Both teams have plenty to find out, about themselves and each other. The new bouncer law has eliminated some of the predictability of one-day play, while the infusion of new blood into both sides has helped ensure what could be the best one-day series in New Zealand for a number of years.

Caught between their cricketing and commercial interests, thesupermodels of Indian cricket must have been under the illusion thatall they had to do was strut their stuff and the Wellington Test wouldbe theirs. There was an obvious lack of effort from the visitingbatsmen who seemed to be only going through their motions. Probably itwas this apathy that also led to them showing a complete lack ofemotion after their abject performance.

My mind goes back some 34 years to another Test match at Wellington -the third match of a four-Test series. India had won the first Test atDunedin, which incidentally was also its first-ever Test match winabroad. New Zealand bounced back well to take the second atChristchurch. When the two teams came to Wellington for the allimportant third Test, the conditions were similar to those whichgreeted Ganguly’s men in the recent Test; it was cold and windy, andthe pitch had a lot of grass on it. But the then Indian team showedthe will to fight it out and win the match. Our eight-wicket win pavedthe way for us winning the series 3-1.I reckon the New Zealand team then was far superior when compared totheir present line-up, especially when it came to the batting. Idistinctly remember the right-handed opening batsman Graham Dowling.If my memory serves me right, he scored 143 in the first Test atDunedin and then piled on 230-odd runs in the second Test atChristchurch. The Kiwi batsmen then were good at playing the sweepshot, a much-favoured form of play against our spin bowling attackwhich included the likes of Bishan Singh Bedi, Bapu Nadkarni and yourstruly.At the Wellington Test that followed, after New Zealand had decided tobat first, yours truly destroyed their batting with a five-wickethaul. And in the second innings it was Bapu Nadkarni who picked sixwickets, getting the ball to turn viciously, while I finished withthree.The nature of the track was very much the same after 34 years. SouravGanguly’s men found out like we had all those years ago that the BasinReserve track in Wellington has always had a spongy feel to it whichhelps the seam bowlers.If it helps the seam bowlers, it would also definitely help good spinbowlers. If I am correct, Shane Warne has been a very successfulbowler in New Zealand. The simple trick is that the bowler has to givethe ball a great deal of tweak. It is the ability to turn the ball onany surface that matters in the end.Spin was our strength all those years ago and it continues to be ourstrength now too. In the circumstances, I think the current teammanagement got the game plan completely wrong. And the lion share ofthe blame rests with the coach John Wright.

As a former New Zealand captain, Wright would have been the bestperson to guide the Indian batsmen about the conditions. But somehowhe does not seem to have succeeded in achieving this. At no point didthe Indians seem like a team that had prepared for this game. Thebatting, in particular, with the exception of Dravid in the firstinnings, was pathetic. Even Tendulkar’s effort in the second inningswas not convincing.Make no mistake; the Indian team in 1968 did not have a foreign coach.It did not have the services of a physiotherapist and a trainer.Neither did it have a computer analyst. The team did not have the kindof facilities the boys have today. But the then captain Pataudi, andthe rest of the team had the will to win. Surely the ball seamed andbounced, but fortunately for us, there was one batsman, Ajit Wadekar,who stood like a rock and scored the bulk of the runs. The debutantmade a classy 143, which played its part in helping the spinners todestroy the New Zealand batting.There was no one to play a similar role this time around. After theabject surrender, Wright was quoted in newspapers as saying that thebatsmen should have been judicious in their shot selection. Well, allI have got to say to this is that most of the top Indian batsmen didnot get out playing shots, they were completely undone by the bounceand movement – and played nothing shots. As for his observation that”we’ve got some wonderful batsmen. When they get in, they expressthemselves and they’re good to watch”, well, all a Indian supporterwants is for this Indian team to be good enough to win, even if theyaren’t necessarily good to watch.Stephen Fleming mentioned after the thumping win that his team had aclear game plan, and that it worked out to perfection. It is evidentthat Wright and Ganguly, in contrast, did not put in much thought intothe first Test.After the walloping at Wellington, I, for one, can’t see this Indianteam recover and do well at Hamilton just by making a few changes tothe bowling line-up. What instead has to be done is that the batsmenwill have to be told to show some more courage and fight it out ratherthan setting their stall to look good against Kiwi bowlers.It will also be prudent for Wright to remember the different culturalbackgrounds the Indian players come from. In general the Indians aresoft, much unlike the Australians or Kiwis. So a tough schoolmasterapproach or a hands-free professional approach would not do any goodto the team when the chips are down. At the end of the day, the coachis responsible for how well the team prepares and performs. Wright,then, must do everything in his powers to ensure that anotherdemoralising loss at Hamilton is avoided.

New Zealand won the first Test of the National Bank Series but left enough areas needing some attention that there would be no complacency going into the second Test starting in Hamilton on Thursday.TelstraClear Black Caps coach Denis Aberhart said today that he fully expected the Indians to come back hard at New Zealand.Although had they taken a look at the pitch at the ground they would have realised that they face more of the same, although possibly without quite the amount of sideways movement that occurred in Wellington.However, it is the New Zealanders who have to up their game.”We did the job required with the ball in the first innings and the catching was good in the second innings. I think if we look at the batting side of things we were disappointing and we know that.”I don’t expect the Indians to fall over quite as easily as they did in the first Test match.”They’re a quality side and we know we have got to be on top of our game and put the pressure on again here,” he said.There were no grounds for complacency and he didn’t think they would be a problem.While the side’s plan had worked well, Aberhart said there was always room to be better. The bowlers had stuck to their plans pretty well and were bowling in the right areas to the batsmen.But he expected greater application from them in this Test with the bowlers staying in their specified target areas a lot longer than they did in the first Test.Aberhart didn’t think the winning of the toss would be as crucial as it was in Wellington. The ground had a history of providing wins for teams whether they batted or bowled first.”We’re not concerned which way we end up doing it,” he said.”The pitch looks fine but two days out from the game I never take too much notice. I wait until the morning of the game because it can change so quickly over the two days. It has good grass cover and with a couple of days hard rolling it will certainly harden up.”We will need to show patience and that’s one of the things our batsmen have got to do. We do have people in our batting line-up who are able to do that,” he said.