New Zealand's 'team-first' culture has brought them positive results

New Zealand cricket team coach Mike Hesson has claimed that sacrificing personal records for team effort is what has made the squad develop into a fierce competitive unit ahead of the Cricket World Cup.

South Africa had rolled New Zealand for 45 in a Test innings two years ago, but now Brendon McCullum's team has come out as strong contenders for the 2015 World Cup, which gets underway on February 14.

The previous pattern of a top-order failure leading to an innings collapse has now been replaced by a culture where New Zealand believe they can beat any team and the image of a side filled with individual performances has been turned into a team effort culture, Sport24 reported.

Hesson said “one cannot have a team-first mentality if only a few people are buying into it. When one has players sacrificing their own personal records for what the team needs, that's what it's all about”.

As a result McCullum takes his side into the World Cup off the back of a series wins against Sri Lanka and Pakistan in the past month, and a reputation as team that fights to the end.

In 2012, the year prior to the frank self-analysis, New Zealand had a disappointing 4-10 ODI win-loss record. After the South Africa debacle, it improved to 7-10 in 2013 and progressed to the right side of the ledger at 9-5 last year.

New Zealand have won four of their past five series and three times in the past two years. They have also successfully chased down a target of more than 250, beating India, Pakistan and England, as they worked on their World Cup strategy.

Hesson said that it's nice to win games when one is under the pump and added that that's something they pride themselves on.

He also claimed that chasing under pressure is important, insisting that they are going to have a lot of chases in the next few months and they are going to be in pressure situations.