Neesham confident of New Zealand's abilities

New Zealand has been a team in transition in recent times, but according to all-rounder Jimmy Neesham, the ICC Champions Trophy is the perfect opportunity to show how far they have come.

The Black Caps lost its rain-affected warm-up encounter with India on Sunday by 45 runs (via the Duckworth-Lewis Stern method), but Luke Ronchi and Neesham stood out at The Oval with handy scores of 66 and 46 not out respectively.

Kane Williamson’s charges now look forward to another warm-up clash with Sri Lanka, before its ICC Champions Trophy campaign gets underway with Australia, England and Bangladesh lying in wait in the group stages.

And Neesham is convinced his side is capable of its first ICC Champions Trophy success since 2000 in the coming weeks.

“This is a very important tournament for us,” said the 26-year-old, who also took one for 11 from his three overs bowled.

“The results haven’t been bad over the last six months of course; we’ve got the Chappell-Hadlee Trophy in the cabinet against Australia and took South Africa and India to deciders as well.

“The results have been promising, but whenever you come into these pinnacle world events you want to put your best foot forward and we definitely are looking to win the whole tournament – that’s for sure.”

It was a frustrating innings for New Zealand’s batsmen as they stuttered to 189 all out, despite the resistance of Ronchi and Neesham.

Tim Southee gave the Kiwis a lifeline as his bouncer saw opener Ajinkya Rahane caught on the boundary for just seven, but that brought skipper Virat Kohli to the crease and the Indian superstar knocked off an unbeaten 52 before the rain intervened.

And while Neesham admits it was not the performance the Black Caps were after as preparations for the showpiece event hit fever pitch this week, he is confident it is only a matter of time before the Kiwis click into gear.

He said: “It certainly felt like a warm-up game for us and a few of the guys haven’t played in a black shirt for a while.

“It was good to get the chance to bat a bit more time and get 26 overs in the field, but going forward we’ll look to develop a few of those things that didn’t go so well today.

“We’ve played a lot of cricket together over the home summer and it should just take us a game or two to gel back together and into how things were.

“We’re very confident that in time for that first game against Australia, we’ll be firing again.”