Utseya, Gibson draw battle lines for first ODI

Prosper Utseya believes Zimbabwe?s best is yet to come, and is looking to prove this point in the first of five One-day Internationals against West Indies on Thursday at the Guyana National Stadium.

The Zimbabwe captain continues to warn his side that Sunday?s stunning 26-run victory in the Twenty20 International in Port of Spain should serve as motivation, not a cause for celebration.

"We are trying not to be over-confident going into [Thursday?s] game," said the off-spinner.

"We know the West Indies are a good team, but once we settle down and play good cricket, we know we can be tough for any opposition on any given day."

The Zimbabweans used their slow bowlers to good effect on a slow Queen's Park Oval pitch which offered generous turn to upset West Indies in the T20I.

They intend to continue with this plan for the ODIs, since conditions here, and at the Arnos Vale Multiplex in St. Vincent, where the last three matches will be contested, should be similar.

West Indies too, have a few slow bowling options, including Sulieman Benn, whose four wickets early in the T20I, flattened the visitors? top order batting.

So it appears the series will be decided by the side that deploys their batting resources in a strategic manner, and Utseya is well aware of this.

"I must say that I am impressed with the spinners who handled the situation effectively," he said.

"But there is some concern in the batting department, especially with seven of our batsmen failing to get off the mark. Having acknowledged this, we will still be looking to come out on top over them."

He added: "There is still room for improvement in terms of how we think and we need to fix our mistakes. We don?t expect an easy game, and if we do our best, we will be successful.

"We don?t want to take West Indies lightly, and we will have to play out of our skin and remain focussed for Thursday and throughout the ODIs."

New West Indies coach Ottis Gibson indicated that some of the batsmen on his side are still low on confidence following the recent trip to Australia.

West Indies were soundly beaten in four of five ODIs and all two T20Is that they contested Down Under just prior to this homecoming.

"The success for winning starts at practice, and we are gaining some amount of confidence from practice all the time, hence [Zimbabwe] need to be on the lookout for us on Thursday," said Gibson.

He noted that there has been a buzz in the side, since the arrival of West Indies captain Chris Gayle.

The talismanic opener missed Sunday?s T20I on compassionate grounds to visit his ailing mother.

"He is an inspiration to the guys," said Gibson. "He gives them a lift as if they are on Cloud Nine.

"The guys understand how they need to play in certain situations, and what we have practised, and I must say, judging from how they look, I am impressed with the way things have been going so far in preparation for the game."

Gibson was philosophical about last Sunday?s defeat, and continued to be contrite about the shocking result.

"As a team we do feel disappointed that we lost the game," he said.

"[Zimbabwe] exploited the conditions in the pitch more than we, and now our fans expect us to go hard at them.