Black Caps striving to pull off a surprise in T20 World Cup in Sri Lanka

Colombo: New Zealand will this coming week enter their fourth ICC T20 World Cup in Sri Lanka with little real previous success, but will still hope to pull off a surprise or two in the tournament.

According to explosive batsman and wicketkeeper Brendon McCullum, the Black Caps are determined to make a mark and redress their poor record. They have made just one semi-final, in 2009, and built a seven win-nine loss record in the tournament so far. The team looks promising on paper, with opener McCullum sitting atop the world international T20 batting rankings and Martin Guptill placed fifth. The team`s bowling stocks look strong, too - with Kyle Mills, Tim Southee and Nathan McCullum in decent form. Round robin play will pit the Black Caps against Bangladesh (on Friday) and Pakistan (Sunday), and they need at least one victory to ensure passage through to the Super Eight pool round. Being tactically "proactive" in their warm-up games against Australia, who they played in Colombo last night, and South Africa, will lay a good base for the team, a website quoted McCullum, as saying. "The teams we`re playing in the competition are going to be a lot different to the two warm-up games against Australia and South Africa," he added. "But I still think, whilst it would be nice to try different combinations and try a few of your tactical elements in those games, I still think it`s about being able to be proactively mixed in your tactics and stay in front of the opposition,” he, however, said. New Zealand has beaten Bangladesh in the shortest form of the game in Hamilton in February 2010 and Pakistan thrice. But it has lost to Pakistan on five occasions. ANI