Keep calm and stay flexible: Nielsen

Stay calm and have plenty of backup plans: that's Tim Nielsen's advice as Australia prepare for New Zealand's cricket World Cup batting onslaught.

Nielsen was Australia coach when they last crossed the Tasman to the land of the long white cloud in 2009-10.

Speaking ahead of Saturday's crucial match at Auckland's Eden Park, Nielsen said the smaller grounds in New Zealand would provide an extra challenge.

"If someone gets in and they're going well, that's probably about the going rate," Nielsen said.

"You have to keep calm and make sure you don't panic when the scoreboard tells you a different story to what you're used to.

"Then you have the likes of (Brendon) McCullum, (Kane) Williamson and (Ross) Taylor, who can really put the foot down the way they're playing at the moment.

"(You need to have) a clear idea, if they do get away, how you're going to drag the game back to even keel and then hopefully get on top of them by getting them out.

"Having plan B and plan C would be pretty important for the Australians."

Nielsen said cool heads will also be important because of the parochial crowd.

"One nice thing about playing away is, if you can actually shut the crowd up, it means you're going OK," he said.

"It's always a goal wherever you are in the world to keep the crowd quiet."

Already a key clash for Australia, Saturday becomes even more important given their match last weekend against Bangladesh was rained out.

But Nielsen is confident his compatriots will be ready.

"The blokes look like they're primed and going really well," he said.

"From the outside, they look like they're charged."