NEW ZEALAND captain Steven Fleming reckons Twose company can prove there's no place like home, even if it is 13,000 miles away from the Land of the Long White Cloud.

Fleming feels the Kiwis can clinch their place in the Super Six stage of the World Cup at their adopted County Ground home in Southampton, which has been their base, by seeing off the West Indies there on Monday.

But the Kiwis' brilliant win over Australia on Wednesday has tweaked up the temperature on a game that could spell sudden death for the losers.

A major scalp is sure to fall in Group B, where Pakistan, Australia, New Zealand and the West Indies are battling it out for the top three places, and Fleming is determined it's not going to be his side which misses out.

Although the Kiwis came to the competition quietly, they are living up to their reputation as dark horses, and their status as a good outside bet was enhanced by yesterday's five-wicket win over their arch rivals from across the Tasman Sea as they polished off the 214 target with almost five overs to spare.

Much of that was down to former Warwickshire player Roger Twose, who cracked ten fours in an unbeaten 99-ball 80.

His 148-run partnership in 28 overs with Chris Cairns levelled the reputation of the Aussie attack, and skipper Fleming spotted from some way out that the game against the West Indies would be the key to their qualification.

"We pinpointed the West Indies game as the key one if we were going to qualify for the Super Six," said Fleming.

"Our form has been very good so far but you have to be careful as there's a fine line between confidence and recklessness.

"In the World Cup you have to play well day-in, day-out. You can put in a couple of decent performances and then blow up in a single bad day."

But Fleming reckons that being based in Southampton could give his side the edge.

"We regard it as our home ground away from home and the good game we had againt Hampshire has given us a very good eye on the conditions. It would be nice if we could clinch our place in the Super Six at our home ground."

There are a limited number of tickets available for Monday's game, priced at £18 across the board. The Hampshire box office will be open until noon today to deal with the sales (01703 333788).

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