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Windies set to face Twenty20 music

The Black Caps will have a major advantage in their Twenty20 match at Eden Park on Thursday - they have played the short version of the sport a number of times.

The Black Caps will have a major advantage in their Twenty20 match at Eden Park on Thursday - they have played the short version of the sport a number of times while the touring West Indies haven't.

In fact the Calypso Kings have not even experienced the new one-day rules of the super sub and the power plays such is the lack of cricket their players have had over recent months.

"We haven't played any international games at all but we just got one friendly warm-up sort of game in Victoria the other day but that is about it," West Indies skipper Shivnarine Chanderpaul said on Wednesday.

"A couple of guys have played some county games [in England] but I don't know if they have played any Twenty20 games."

While the tourists will be forced to learn on the job under lights in Auckland, their Black Cap counterparts have now had a couple of international matches against Australia and South Africa as well as a recently completed domestic Twenty20 programme stored in the knowledge bank.

That said, such is the nature of Twenty20 cricket that individual players can win matches on their own and the West Indies possess a couple of world class players amongst their line-up.

Opening batsman Chris Gayle is one of the those players capable of changing the match, while experienced campaigners like Chanderpaul and Ramnaresh Sarwan are also quality players.

"Everyone is keen and raring to go," Chanderpaul said of his squad. "Tomorrow, hopefully we can go out there and play some good cricket.

"We want to see what it is all about and get a feel for it."

Instead of taking it as a carnival-style match, the tourists know that this is a chance to get used to New Zealand conditions and get some much-needed match fitness under their belts so they will take the game seriously.

"It is good for our one-day game to have a hit-out before heading straight into the one-dayers," Chanderpaul continued.

"It is the start of our tour so we want to start well and keep it going.

"We are here to prepare for a one day series and a test series so we are going to go out there and play it a bit serious tomorrow."

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