Captain AB de Villiers on Thursday revealed that South Africa will continue to adapt a very flexible batting order across their three-match Twenty20 International series against New Zealand.

Triumphant in their recent five-ODI affair with Sri Lanka, the Proteas used as many as three batsmen at four in the order, with de Villiers, JP Duminy and Faf du Plessis moving up and down at the demand of the situation. Albie Morkel, meanwhile, was deployed in a floating role, striding to the crease as and when the circumstances required him to weigh in with some big hits.

De Villiers acknowledged that a similar approach will be used against a Black Caps unit sitting two spots higher than South Africa in the ICC T20I rankings and brimming with confidence on the back of a limited-overs series triumph over Zimbabwe.

"We've got six or seven totally different batters out there and we'd like to get the best player in the right situation for the team," said de Villiers. "We've got a few big hitters and some guys that can knock it around. If we need a few boundaries, Albie might go up the order. Coach Gary Kirsten and I like to keep the guys on their toes."

The tourists landed a 20-run win over Canterbury in Christchurch earlier in the week, when Richard Levi starred with a half-century and Lonwabo Tsotsobe clinched four wickets, including a hat-trick.

The rest of the visiting pack, though, endured an indifferent showing. While the performance was not as clinical as de Villiers would have liked, the skipper looked forward to his troops raising their game at the Westpac Stadium in Wellington.

"Friday will bring a high-pressure game, there's a lot of expectation around but we are just going to go out and enjoy it," added de Villiers, who will lead the side in T20I competition for the first time since taking over the reins in June last year.

"I'm not a captain that harps on the mistakes we make, mistakes are always there. What I really liked is the presence we had in the field and the energy against Canterbury You are going to drop catches, the best in the world drop catches sometimes. I don't mind that, we really fielded well and the guys are switched on."

With one eye on the World Twenty20, which gets underway in Sri Lanka in September, de Villiers anticipated that the team's host of young guns - Levi, Marchant de Lange, Rusty Theron, Colin Ingram and the like - preparing for the showpiece event with a strong run against the Black Caps.

"I'm expecting to see a lot of these faces at the World Twenty20," he concluded. "That's definitely part of the plan, to get these boys ready for the big tournament later in the year. We've got bigger goals like the World Cup but this is a huge series for us and we'd love to win it."