Auckland, Feb 25 (IANS): Former World Cup-winning captain Steve Waugh Wednesday said New Zealand will be going into Saturday’s World Cup Pool A encounter at the Eden Park here against Australia as “a slight favourites”.

Waugh, who was instrumental in helping Allan Border-led Australia win 1987 World Cup and captained his country to glory in 1999, said Eden Park is a hard place to play in, and given the confidence and form of the Black Caps, it will be a tough test for his countrymen.

“To be brutally honest, New Zealand is probably going in a slight favourite. They’ve really got their confidence up and Auckland is a very hard place to play - it’s just a different kind of ground,” Waugh was quoted as saying by news.com.au.

“We’ve got a fantastic team capable of beating anyone but New Zealand have really got some tremendous momentum.”

Waugh will attend the game here and has enjoyed the overall standard of cricket in the mega tournament so far - particularly competitive performances from Afghanistan, Ireland, Scotland and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

“There’s been big gains from those so-called lesser nations. They've really been mixing it up,” he said.