Hamilton, March 22: His side may have been beaten all hands down in the first Test here but New Zealand coach Andy Moles is not ready to throw in the towel yet. In fact, he has warned Indians of a ‘sterner test’ in the next game beginning on March 26 at Napier.

"One thing about this group that is really impressive is their will to win and their will to get better. We are looking forward to a gutsier and a smarter performance. And I know we are a proud bunch of players, they know they have underperformed. But I can promise you that India will face a much sterner examination than they did in the first Test match. They will have a lot more to bowl against or bat against, come Napier," Moles said on Sunday.

"This group is totally honest, they don’t make excuses. Nobody in the group could say that they had a good game, and that’s not good enough. Everybody went to the gym today, we have a review process, we travel to Napier, we will have two hard practice sessions, plus reviews on our team and the Indians, on how we can do things better," Moles added.

He admitted the Kiwis were dejected after the loss but claimed they had picked themselves up immediately. "We have six or seven guys today practising. One of the guys is even continuing after everyone else has left. From my coaching position it’s fantastic.

"The ideal thing is that we are lucky to have such a good captain. We saw in this game that he led from the front, with the bat, his communication around the team, the way he puts things across the team is good. Yeah, we are looking forward to the next challenge," he said.

Moles said his batsmen could learn a lot from Sachin Tendulkar.

"Sachin showed that it’s all about making sure you bat for long periods of time. In the earlier part of his innings, by his own admission, he wasn’t fluent, but he got through those difficult times. As he got in, it got easier. It’s an age-old theory the longer you bat the easier it gets," he said.

Moles said it was not about fiddling too much with the natural game of the batsmen.

"It’s all about shot selection. You need to get the tempo of your innings right according to the state of the game and if you are playing on a flat wicket and you are racing away and the opposition isn’t bowling too well, obviously the tempo changes as to what we had in first innings here where we needed a different types of innings.

"Test cricket is all about adapting to the game that’s unfolding and our players have got to realise the type of innings that are required. Over the game we need to score at least 700 runs against this Indian team, and it’s easier to score them in the first innings than the last," he said.