THEY were belted by an innings and 301 runs in the one-off test match and will head into Monday’s second one-dayer at Cobham Oval, Whangarei, on the back of a 90-run loss in Dunedin, but Zimbabwe deserve to be respected, according to leading Black Caps bowler Kyle Mills.
The New Zealanders will start the fixture as the heavy favourites and anything short of a demolishing victory would be seen by the players as a disappointing result.
Similarly, fans will be expecting another one-sided contest but Mills has warned it would be unwise to write the African minnows off just yet.
"Absolutely, they will (get better)," he said yesterday.
"That's the general theme in most series around the world.
"The waters are tested in the first game but as the series progresses, both teams get a better read on each other and what they're trying to do and get a better understanding of individual strengths and weaknesses.
"There's no doubt they are going to come back a lot better, harder and stronger in Whangarei.
"It's a must-win game for them and they did that up in the series in Zimbabwe as well – they progressively got better."
The result last weekend in Napier when the Black Caps dismissed their rivals twice in a day's play – only the third time in test cricket history that had happened – was hardly unexpected given Zimbabwe returned to test cricket only last year after a six-year hiatus.
Much like the Black Caps, they are a better limited overs side and, when the teams met in Zimbabwe in October last year, the hosts managed to snaffle a win in the third and final one-day match of the series.
Mills believes that the shorter the cricketing format, the more chance there is of an upset and sees tomorrow's clash as a dangerous prospect the Black Caps need to navigate around. "In test cricket, the best team will always win over five days," he said.
"In the shorter form of the game when you get down to one day, it brings both teams back to the pack a little bit.
"In Twenty20 cricket, it's probably even more so and when it's very short, it always evens the teams out no matter who the opposition is.
"It's really important we stay on our game in Whangarei because there's no doubt they will be a lot stronger and mentally prepared for it."
With two wins on the bounce to kick-start their home summer of cricket, the Black Caps are in a confident frame of mind.
But despite winning by 90 runs on Friday, Mills believes the performance was far from clinical and is expecting an improved showing tomorrow.
"We executed reasonably well at times on Friday but there are definitely areas of improvement," Mills said.
"It was nice to have a nice solid win with room for improvement from the first game of the series," he said.