Moles pleased with bowling effort

New Zealand coach Andy Moles says he was pleased with the performance of his bowlers in the first ODI against West Indies in Queenstown. Though the match was washed out, New Zealand restricted West Indies to 129 for 5 in the 35.4 overs possible.

No bowler conceded more than 4.42 run an over and Jacob Oram was the most economical with 16 off his six overs. Moles said it was good to see Oram, who missed the Test series because of a calf strain, bowl without any discomfort. "With Jake [Oram] and Dan [Vettori] bowling together they managed to build up pressure really well," Moles was quoted as saying on NZPA. "Any good one-day side knows you need combinations of bowlers and those two bowl well together."

Moles also praised Kyle Mills, who dismissed the attacking Chris Gayle in his seven-over spell for 23 runs. "He [Mills] showed what an experienced bowler he is by taking the pace off the ball."

New Zealand have won all their ODI series in 2008 and Moles felt the team had continued its good run in Queenstown as well. "It's obviously disappointing the game was cut short because the little bit we did see, we managed to get in a very strong position. The one-day format of the game, we have a good history in and we showed again, when we applied pressure, the team looked very dangerous.

"We spoke about certain areas we wanted to bowl to certain players and the guys performed really well."

The second of five ODIs is scheduled for Saturday in Christchurch.