Adapting to sub-continental pitches and success with the ball in the middle overs are key to continuing New Zealand's winning momentum at the Cricket World Cup, their captain Tom Latham said ahead of Wednesday's clash with Afghanistan in Chennai.
Latham replaced Kane Williamson as New Zealand skipper after the latter's tournament-ending injury in Friday's eight-wicket win over Bangladesh, which made it three wins in three matches for the 2015 and 2019 finalists.
"For us it's about trying to adapt to each surface as best we can," Latham told a press conference on Tuesday.
"Some surfaces may be different to others and they may change throughout a 50-over innings ... if we do that I think that gives us a good chance.
"I think it's always the challenge in white-ball cricket, how to stay aggressive through the middle stages when things don't tend to happen as quickly ... we've always tried to be proactive and always looking to take wickets in some way."
New Zealand are playing an Afghanistan side fresh off a 69-run victory over defending champions England on Sunday, with their first win over a Test-playing nation at a World Cup providing a welcome boost after losing their first two matches.
Afghanistan skipper Hashmatullah Shahidi said Chennai was a familiar venue for the sixth-placed team.
"India was our home for two to three years ... in this ground we had our preparation camp for the 2019 World Cup," Shahidi added.
"We spent 40 days here ... the conditions are the same as in Afghanistan. That gives us extra advantage."
Shahidi said Afghanistan needed to break their unfortunate habit of allowing their middle order to collapse if they wanted to build on their shock win over England.
"(Losing) back-to-back wickets puts pressure (on us) and that's happening with us for the last three games," he said. "We have to take responsibility as players, everyone in the middle order."
Pharaoh's curse
British aristocrat Lord Carnarvon, who funded the expedition to find the Tutankhamun tomb, died in a Cairo hotel four months after the crypt was opened.
He had been in poor health for many years after a car crash, and a mosquito bite made worse by a shaving cut led to blood poisoning and pneumonia.
Reports at the time said Lord Carnarvon suffered from “pain as the inflammation affected the nasal passages and eyes”.
Decades later, scientists contended he had died of aspergillosis after inhaling spores of the fungus aspergillus in the tomb, which can lie dormant for months. The fact several others who entered were also found dead withiin a short time led to the myth of the curse.
Some of Darwish's last words
"They see their tomorrows slipping out of their reach. And though it seems to them that everything outside this reality is heaven, yet they do not want to go to that heaven. They stay, because they are afflicted with hope." - Mahmoud Darwish, to attendees of the Palestine Festival of Literature, 2008
His life in brief: Born in a village near Galilee, he lived in exile for most of his life and started writing poetry after high school. He was arrested several times by Israel for what were deemed to be inciteful poems. Most of his work focused on the love and yearning for his homeland, and he was regarded the Palestinian poet of resistance. Over the course of his life, he published more than 30 poetry collections and books of prose, with his work translated into more than 20 languages. Many of his poems were set to music by Arab composers, most significantly Marcel Khalife. Darwish died on August 9, 2008 after undergoing heart surgery in the United States. He was later buried in Ramallah where a shrine was erected in his honour.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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