Pakistan coach Waqar Younis believes his team will gain more from the current series than New Zealand heading into the one-day cricket World Cup in the subcontinent next month.
Pakistan levelled the six-match series at 1-1 with a 43-run win at Christchurch last Saturday and go into tomorrow's fourth match at McLean Park in full confidence.
Irrespective of the results in the final three matches, however, Younis said Pakistan would be better prepared for the World Cup than New Zealand, given the conditions here were vastly different to what both teams will face on the subcontinent.
"This is going to help us more than New Zealand," he told reporters today.
"New Zealand are more used to these conditions and we are used to conditions back home in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and India. We'll probably cope better with that than them. We're pretty used to playing in our conditions but this series probably"It seems whatever balance we go in with, we don't quite have enough batters or not quite enough bowlers, and maybe that just could be the conditions," Vettori said today.
"New Zealand conditions dictate you might need that extra seamer, but when we get to India you can play the more fiddly bowler. It's probably not like for like but you just want guys in form and feeling good about themselves, and most of that will come from winning."
Meanwhile, Younis is demanding more of the same from his team tomorrow.
Their approach on Saturday was very much the Pakistan of old. They built a solid platform over the first 40 overs, courtesy of Mohammad Hafeez's maiden hundred, without worrying about the run-rate, before their late hitters, in particular Shahid Afridi, did the damage in the final 10.
"We try to make sure we get into a situation where the middle order and lower middle order comes into play. That's exactly what happened," Younis said.
