Tom Latham wants to learn from Virat Kohli about converting starts to big scores

New Zealand opener Tom Latham, who has been their best batsman on the tour of India has said he wants to emulate the way in which Virat Kohli converts his starts into match-winning knocks.

The Kiwis currently trail 1-2 in the five-match ODI series after suffering a 0-3 whitewash in the Test series, but Latham has been in good form so far notching five half-centuries and looking assured with the bat.

"You need those big hundreds if you have to win. Look at Virat Kohli the other night. He got into a position and he finished the game (for India). Obviously, it's nice that I am putting myself in that situation. Hopefully, I will be able to put up a big score. It's the big hundreds that count," Latham said.

The 24-year-old left-hander also said his side were keen to put a “perfect performance” in the must-win match at Ranchi.

"In cricket, you have to learn and adapt to different wickets. I think we haven't assessed that early enough. For me, it's about getting used to the conditions because they are so different to the conditions back home. We know we haven't put our best foot forward in a few games now. Everyone is trying hard to put that perfect performance and we are not far away. Certainly looking forward to that chance tomorrow.”

Latham also believes the Ranchi wicket will be a flat belter and urged their struggling batters to come up with a much-improved performance.

"Certainly, it looks a lot different from the Mohali strip. It is bare and not much grass is there. It can change a lot in a day so we will wait and see what happens tomorrow. Hopefully, there will be a lot of runs coming from the batters. As I said before, we have to adapt to the conditions.

"I think it's important that whether we bat or bowl first, we make that assessment (about the surface), get the news to the group about what's the best score here. It's the most important thing for us you know. We have to adapt and adjust quickly.

In the last game, it was James Neesham (57) and pacer Matt Henry (39) who had steadied their sinking ship to take New Zealand to a challenging 285 and Latham said the team desperately needs contributions from the middle order if they are to beat India.

"We need to be better in the middle-order, build a few fruitful partnerships. We have seen that we bat deep, hopefully, we can put the icing on the cake by batting better in the middle-order.”