The Pakistanis conquered the Black Caps in their own backyard in a six-match One-day International series 3-2 and are brimming with confidence as they prepared in Kandy for Tuesday's match against New Zealand.

Team officials believe that with the conditions in Sri Lanka favouring them, Pakistan have solid chances of maintaining their unbeaten spree in the tournament.

"The fact that we beat them (New Zealand) in New Zealand in the ODI series last month certainly gives us a lot of confidence going into our next match," Intikhab Alam, the Pakistan manager told Arab News on Saturday.

"The conditions there suited New Zealand but it should be different here. We are more familiar with the conditions here and will try our best to make the most of it. We have the upper hand because the conditions here are like what we have back home in Pakistan," he added.

Pakistan have won all their three previous World Cup matches and will try to go for another win in a bid to secure their place for the last-eight stage and stay on the top of Pool A. A win in Tuesday's match will confirm Pakistan's place in the quarterfinals.

After giving themselves a day off on Friday, Pakistan were back in training at the picturesque Asgiriya Stadium, located in the heart of Sri Lanka's rolling hill-country, Saturday morning.

They had a longish stay in the nets for some batting and bowling practice and then the players were seen working hard during a fielding training session.

"Fielding is the one area where we need a lot of hard work," said Shahid Afridi, the Pakistan captain. "Because no matter what we do with the bat or ball if we don't field well and take our catches then it would be tough for us to keep winning," he stressed.

Intikhab, a former Pakistan captain, was confident that his players will raise their game as they meet New Zealand and perhaps more importantly Australia later this month. "The team is improving and I'm hopeful that it will do well in the big matches too," he said.

New Zealand, meanwhile, are in a positive frame of my mind after crushing Zimbabwe in what was the first ODI meeting between the two sides in five years.

Daniel Vettori, the New Zealand captain, was confident that his team will maintain its good show in the match against Pakistan.

"We're after that sort of performance where two guys take responsibility for the win, and that's what we've got to do in these big games coming up against Sri Lanka and Pakistan," said Vettori.