Skipper Fleming Photo Reuters

New Zealand are determined to sort out the loss of wickets in bunches that have marred the side's one-day performances this year.

Speaking after the four-wicket win in the National Bank Series opener against England, New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming said: "We've been losing too many wickets through the middle but we are down the track to rectifying it, certainly talking wise and identifying it wise, action wise is the next thing, and we've got four more games to do it."

The consequences of not addressing the problem was the loss of more games than were won. New Zealand had survived in this game, but the trend was there and they had got away with it this time.

Rectifying it involved getting a start in an innings and then building partnerships.

"Partnerships are crucial. In successful sides most games that are won will have successful partnerships, that's what we need," he said.

Fleming admitted to wondering if the England collapse was going to be mirrored in New Zealand's batting when Darren Gough picked up four wickets in two overs.

Any team getting on a roll like that could be dangerous and hovering in the background was the fact he had two inexperienced players still to bat.

But Andre Adams was encouraged to go out and hit the ball hard, and it had paid off.

"We had two courses of action, one was to try and limp through, and the other was to be positive."

Adams was "a free spirit" and was encouraged to play accordingly.

There was sometimes a high risk in what he did but his hand-eye co-ordination was so good that New Zealand wanted to make use of his ability to change the game quite quickly.

© CricInfo