A study of New Zealand skipper Stephen Fleming in the nets these days reveals a skipper working hard at adapting to new elements in the one-day game, new elements that may have a big say in just who will be holding the World Cup aloft in South Africa next year.

Fleming would no doubt like to be that man.

He's getting used to holding trophies aloft. The trophy for the New Zealand-England Test series in 1999 and the ICC KnockOut in Kenya in 2000 are the two occasions he has savoured.

He led the side into a position of advantage that could have seen New Zealand steal the Trans-Tasman Trophy - wouldn't the Hadlee-Border Trophy be a better name for that prize - from Australian noses after that fine Test match in Perth, and he could have been excused for thinking the VB Series trophy might have had New Zealand's name on it at the halfway stage of the event.

That was before the side moved onto Suicide Alley when facing four games in seven days in the last stages of the competition - two in Adelaide, one in Melbourne and the last in Perth.

However, the arrival of the sanctioned one bouncer an over has changed the shape of one-day cricket. While good scores can still be achieved in the first 15 overs of games, the bowlers have an extra weapon, and that is what Fleming is attempting to counter with his own batting.

He held New Zealand's innings together in the third ODI against England in Napier and finished on 76 not out, possibly a vital innings in terms of his summer.

For the two days before, Fleming had looked out of sorts in the nets, several times being cleaned out by the bowlers and was nowhere as much in control as he likes.

That's what made his innings all the more impressive in the match. He didn't bat as fluently, or as quickly, as he would have liked but neither was he out.

However, there were signs in those moments when the big Fleming shots - the straight drives, in the air and along the ground, the powerful pull to mid-wicket and the occasional cover drive - were unleashed that the fluidity was not too far away.

He has not been helped by different pitches on the various New Zealand grounds. The miserableness of the summer this year has been reflected in slower decks than usual, and it may well be Dunedin before the work he has put in sees the timing return to his strokeplay.

"I'm not hitting the ball as crisply as I have in the past," he said.

Fleming is trying to adapt his play to the unpredictability of the bowling resulting from the bouncer rule.

That involves trying to playing more shots off the back foot, scoring faster yet at the same time wanting to spend more time at the crease to bat through the innings more.

Fleming has had a good success rate in working out his problem areas in the past. Chances are that the formula is not too far away from bearing fruit.

"I'm having to grind more than anything. That frustrates me a little bit at times. When you are losing wickets, there is a certain amount of responsibility to keep going.

"The nature of bowling these days is not as predictable. We need to get a platform at the top of the order so these guys [New Zealand's strokeplayers] can come in and play more freely," he said.

Fleming has absorbed the demands of the captaincy in impressive style after some unfortunate criticism of his taking command.

Chances are that similar results could be seen from his one-day batting as New Zealand builds toward the World Cup.

Now that would be a very significant extra string to the side's batting bow should it happen.

© CricInfo