AUCKLAND: West Indies captain Dwayne Bravo won the toss and chose to bowl Thursday in the first of five limited-overs internationals against New Zealand.
Bravo said the possibility of rain later in the day at Eden Park motivated his decision.
"It's a very small ground so we fancy our chances to restrict the New Zealand batters to as low a total as possible and try to chase it down," he said.
The West Indies named a lineup much changed from the one which lost the three-test series 2-0 to New Zealand, and Bravo says his squad is looking forward to a fresh start.
"Obviously we've put what happened in the test series behind us," Bravo said. "There are six or seven players coming in who were not in the test team so it's a different approach.
"I tend to be more on the positive side, try to get the guys to believe in themselves and be very comfortable in this format."
New Zealand named Jesse Ryder to open the batting in his first international match in two years. Ryder played his most recent one-day international against South Africa in February, 2012 before taking a break from international cricket to work on fitness and personal issues.
Captain Brendon McCullum said New Zealand had to use the current series as the starting point in its preparation for the 2015 World Cup in New Zealand and Australia, now only 14 months away.
"We weren't too bothered, to be honest, what we did first," he said. "But it's a good wicket, looks like it's got a bit of pace in it and obviously there are short boundaries.
"We think we've got a pretty formidable battle lineup and now it's just a matter of transferring that from the names on the sheet to the performances on the board."
