Trent Boult is not willing to rest on past laurels despite New Zealand heading into the World Cup as early favourites and refuses to accept that his team are unbeatable.
The fast bowler took five for 51 in his team’s emphatic victory against South Africa in their second warm-up game yesterday.
The Kiwis have emerged triumphant in their last three one-day international series, twice against Pakistan and one against Sri Lanka winning nine of the 14 games.
The 25-year-old admits the recent successes have put the team in the right frame of mind ahead of their opener against Sri Lanka in the tournament opener on Saturday at Christchurch.
“I don’t believe we are invincible,” Boult said yesterday. “We don’t like to call ourselves that. We have a good collection of experi-enced players, a great bowling unit.
“So the environment is really healthy and the guys are enjoying playing together.
“I’m sure that will continue over the next couple of weeks and we’ll be able to stride forward from there.
“We’re looking to go out there and win every game and just build from there. We feel we’re in a pretty good position heading into Saturday,” he added.
New Zealand hold a big advantage over the Sri Lankans as they recently won the seven-match one-day international series 4-2 at home against the Islanders.
But Boult is still wary of the opposition they will be running into in the opening game.
“We all know that they are a quality side full of impressive cricketers. The likes of Kumar Sangakkara, Tillakaratne Dilshan, we all know that they’re world-class players,” he said.
“Although we didn’t face much of Lasith Malinga, we all know what he can do. We feel we know them well and we’ve gained a lot of experience playing them over the last six weeks or so. So now that is done, our focus remains on Saturday. Hopefully, we’ll be able to start well against them.”
The Sri Lankans had a miserable build-up to the tournament los-ing the one-day series to the Kiwis before suffering a seven-wicket humiliation against lesser lights Zimbabwe yesterday.
The good news though for them is that Malinga and captain Angelo Mathews have recovered from injuries and are available for the tournament.
