AARON Redmond brought his unexpected power hitting from league to international cricket as New Zealand eased to an 83-run World Twenty20 win over Ireland.

Redmond’s 63 from only 30 balls provided the impetus needed at the start of an innings which realised 198 for five to get the Black Caps’ Super Eights campaign off to an ideal start.

Five days earlier, Redmond had made a big hundred for Farnworth in a rain-shortened Bolton League match – and 24 hours earlier, he was still oblivious to the fact New Zealand were considering calling him up as a replacement for the ill Jesse Ryder.

Asked whether his 13 fours against Ireland were simply a case of him carrying on where he left off in Lancashire last weekend, he said: ‘‘It was a little bit different today, but maybe that bit of form I had in that last game brought me through.

‘‘Most of the games (for Farnworth) have been rain-affected, so I’ve only been playing about 30-over cricket in the last few weeks – I think that has helped.’’ He hit his first two balls for four off Peter Connell and had 30 runs to his name by the end of the second over – all of which came as a shock to spectators who last saw him trying to grind out runs against England in last summer’s Test series.

‘‘I was playing Test cricket and trying to bat time, then coming into this game and actually playing some shots, two complete contrasts,’’ he accepts.

‘‘But I’ve felt over the last six months I’ve grown in my own game.

‘‘I’ve had quite a few innings for Otago at the start where I took ages and ages to get 50 runs. But in the last six months, I’ve lost that fear a little bit.

‘‘At the start maybe I was bracketed as a Test player, but maybe now I’ll have a shot at the one-dayers too.’’