Guptill sharpens skills ahead of Proteas bout

Wellington, Feb.13 (ANI): Having scored 91 not out in the Black Caps T20 win over Zimbabwe, Martin Guptill has said that he is now honing his skills before the Proteas come calling.

Guptill has just one more opportunity to feast on cricket's minnows before the sharks come calling.

The in-form opener unleashed an array of blistering shots as he made an unbeaten 91 off 54 balls as New Zealand easily chased down a surprisingly spirited 159-8 from the visitors.

Guptill has now collected 374 runs in five innings over three formats against Zimbabwe. He made 51 in his one test innings in Napier, then tallied 70, 77 and 85 in the three one-dayers at better than a run-a-ball.

"I'm just sticking to my game plan and hitting in my areas and trying not to go outside that and it's working for me. If I can just carry on what I've been doing over the past six weeks or so I'm going to be successful over the coming weeks," stuff.co.nz quoted Guptill, as saying.

He added: "The confidence I've got at the moment is fantastic and batting with Brendon [McCullum] and Rob [Nicol] at the top of the order really gets me going. I enjoy batting with them." (ANI)