Ganguly sure batting form will return for World Cup

Indian captain Sourav Ganguly remains confident that his side can resurrect their best batting touches for the World Cup when they return to South Africa.

Ganguly's Indians are now 3-0 down in their National Bank Series with New Zealand after their five-wicket loss at another abbreviated match at Jade Stadium today.

"When we came to New Zealand all our batsmen were in good form but that has changed completely.

"We were in South Africa last December and our batters scored runs. I am pretty confident, it is just a phase," he said.

Ganguly said the prospect of the World Cup shouldn't be a distraction because the event was next month and there was still this series to be completed.

He said that compared to the last Indian tour of New Zealand in 1998/99 the wickets were harder than last time.

"Nathan Astle's policy today was good. He took his chances," he said.

These sort of things do happen in a career, he said, everyone went through phases but it was important that players thought back to the good times and come back stronger.

Ganguly said New Zealand had bowled well in the conditions and although the wickets were seaming, it was still up to the bowlers to put the ball in the right place.

New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming said the win was a good way to start the New Year. The side had learnt from what happened in the first game at Eden Park.

He didn't expect the pitch to behave the way it did, but it had been the same throughout the match. He said it had moved around a lot more than he had experienced at the ground before.

Fleming said the wickets did dictate the quality of the cricket but New Zealand were coping better than India, but the whole exercise was not preparing the side for South African conditions.

However, there was a benefit from performing well and winning because that ensured players went to South Africa in a better frame of mind which allowed them to make their adjustments to South African conditions more easily.

"I'm not going to gripe while we're winning," he said.