Preview: Zimbabwe v New Zealand, 1st ODI

Having won the T20I series in a convincing fashion, New Zealand will be looking to assert their dominance over Zimbabwe in the ODIs. Zimbabwe, on the other hand, will be hoping for an improved performance in the One Dayers and not let the Kiwis have it as easy as they did when they won both the T20 games.Head to Head: Zimbabwe and New Zealand have played 27 ODIs against each other till date. The Kiwis have won 20 games while ending up on the losing side seven times.Zimbabwe: The hosts Zimbabwe have not had a good run in the recent times in all forms of cricket. Having lost all their matches against Pakistan, the Brendan Taylor led side were clean-swept by the New Zealanders in the 20-over version. Be it batting or bowling, Zimbabwe have been short of the mark. In the opening T20, it was only the skipper Taylor who managed to score a half-century while the rest of the line-up, including the likes of Masakadza and Chibhabha, failed to come up with any useful contributions. The batters did slightly better in the second game with Chibhabha scoring a valiant fifty and Chigumbura and Mutizwa coming up with good cameos, although it came in a losing cause. The absence of Sibanda and Taibu has also not helped the team either. While the former, who missed the T20s due to his mother's death, is expected to be back for the ODIs, the status of the injured Taibu is still not known. Going into the 50-over format, Taylor will be hoping for one of the batters to get a big score and the rest to play supporting roles be it while batting first or chasing. Zimbabwe bowling was poor to say the least and was left exposed by the explosive Brendon McCullum in both the T20 games. Defending a low total of 123 did not help the bowlers in the first match and in the second game, they let the New Zealand batters post a mammoth total of 187 in the allocated 18 overs. While they are missing the talented Brian Vitori to an injury, Zimbabwe have decent bowlers in Chris Mpofu, Kyle Jarvis, Ray Price and Elton Chigumbura. All the skipper would be expecting from them is to show some discipline in terms of the line and length if they are to contain the powerful batting line-up that New Zealand possess.New Zealand: Ross Taylor outing as a full time New Zealand skipper started well with the team tasting back to back victories. He will be happy with the form of the openers with Brendon McCullum getting fifties in both matches and Martin Guptill getting stuck into the Zimbabwe bowlers in the second game to score a quick-fire 67. The Kiwis have a very balanced team and a quality batting line-up with the likes of Brendon McCullum, Martin Guptill, Jesse Ryder and Ross Taylor occupying the top four slots. Youngster Kane Williamson, the experienced allrounder Jacob Oram and the talented James Franklin add strength to the middle order. Though Taylor will not forsee any of them struggling against against the Zimbabwe bowlers, he will not want any of his batsmen to take them lightly. As far as New Zealand's bowling is concerned, the likes of Tim Southee and Daniel Vettori will certainly be missed to an extent. Southee was ruled out of the tour due to a knee injury while Vettori opted for an indefinite break form the limited overs formats in order to stay in good shape for the 2015 WC. But the Kiwis do have some quality bowlers to make up for their absence. Kyle Mills and Andy McKay lead the pace attack with James Franklin and Jacob Oram to support them while the Kiwis have Nathan McCullum, Luke Woodcock and Williamson to man the spin department. New Zealand are clear favourites to win the ODIs as well but Taylor would be wanting his side to avoid letting any kind of complacency to creep through.Quotes:Both Brendon and Guppy (Guptill) have played really, really well. We haven't had a lot of batting outside the top three, but that will address itself in the 50-over format: NZ coach John Wright is confident that the middle order batsmen will play well if they get a chance.