New Zealand's batting performance against England at Wellington on Saturday night was more like the sort of display coach Denis Aberhart would like to see consistently from his side.

The way batsmen appreciated their role, especially after being three wickets down for 52, had heartened him and continued further the advances the side has made since starting the summer in Australia.

New Zealand had played only part of the game well in the first National Bank Series match against England in Christchurch.

"But I thought in Wellington the guys played with enthusiasm and pretty well went out and put our game plan in place," he said.

"We had good partnerships, we lost wickets but the guys went in and took responsibility to set up another partnership, and work hard for a while. Then with the ball we started well and did some very good fielding."

The two good partnerships between Stephen Fleming and Craig McMillan, then McMillan and Lou Vincent had been crucial.

"Whilst no-one went on to get big scores, the partnerships were the key and we had two or three little ones after that.

"At 40 overs we were 181/4 which is one of the first times this year we've been able to get to the last 10 with wickets in hand which meant the last few could score reasonably well. We got 63 off the last 10 which set us up.

"There are still things we need to get better at, but from a team point of view I thought the batting was pretty good," he said.

Aberhart said it was significant now that there was genuine competition for places in the side and while there is a core of 12, to be reconsidered after Wednesday's game, there were several different options available within that group of players.

It also helps make practice sessions livelier as several New Zealand batsmen found out today when fast bowler Ian Butler was most impressive with the speed he mustered.

Pitch reports for Wednesday's game suggest it should be the fastest pitch in the ODI series so far. That could make life interesting for batsmen as the allowable one bouncer an over has not yet been a factor in the series.

Weather forecasts have been varied for Wednesday, just as they have been all over New Zealand this summer, but the latest had today's fine weather to continue for at least another two days, setting up a tremendous match in Napier.

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