Changes to both teams appear likely for the second match in the National Bank Series between New Zealand and England at the WestpacTrust Stadium in Wellington tomorrow.

New Zealand's change, bringing in Brendon McCullum for Ian Butler, is a response to the expected slow pitch while England's choices are likely to be more extensive with Andy Caddick being touted as a victim of Wednesday's first loss to be replaced by Matthew Hoggard with Owais Shah possibly to come in for Paul Collingwood.

Wet weather, the curse of this New Zealand summer, has allowed minimal preparation on the Stadium pitch which is still sporting the after-effects of last weekend's IRB Sevens tournament.

Groundsman Trevor Jackson has followed the trend in place at the Basin Reserve, the Capital's other cricket venue, where he used a marquee before the Boxing Day Test against Bangladesh to get the necessary pitch preparation done.

Cricket Wellington chief executive Ervin McSweeney was unconcerned at claims in the city that the match would definitely be transferred to Sunday.

"It's supposed to be clearing. We have had periods today with sun and the cloud has been higher than over the past few days.

"The pitch is under a tent, because it has been raining for four days.

"We put the tent up because we want to do the best we can. I'm optimistic that everything will be OK, there is only so much you can do," he said.

The game was scheduled to go at 2pm tomorrow and that would be the case if the weather conditions were right.

"The pitch at the Stadium is significantly better two days out from the match than the Test wicket was.

"We do need some sort of help from the elements and the next 24 hours are very important," he said.

England will be looking to pull a match back on New Zealand to level the series but just as they didn't perform well in the first game, they must also know that New Zealand are capable of much better.

Both sides need to lift their batting through the middle and later overs of the innings while England also need to sharpen their fielding.

England have pigeon-holed the first match as a game they lost rather than New Zealand won.

Such thinking discounts the fact that despite being under a brutal assault at the start of the game, New Zealand managed to keep their wits and apply the pressure when the opening came.

The fact is that New Zealand won because they wanted to win more than their opponent.

They won because when it mattered they took their chances.

Increasingly, recognising those moments of vitality in a game when the winning or losing can be gone so quickly, is the element New Zealand must harness if it is to become a more efficient one-day unit.

That also includes, as it does for England, recognising the value to be had from partnership building. It is still the key to success in one-day cricket.

Should McCullum be included in the New Zealand side it is likely to be down the order to allow further development of the Nathan Astle-Chris Nevin alliance.

One thing is certain, if McCullum is preferred to Butler, the margin between the fielding ability of the two sides is only going to be widened.

© CricInfo