New Zealand has been designated Middle Earth as a result of the release of the first film of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, but it is the middle ground the CLEAR Black Caps are seeking in the National Bank Series decider against England in Dunedin tomorrow.

New Zealand have proven great starters in one-day series, both in Australia and at home this summer.

England have been great finishers in India and in New Zealand.

Nathan Astle Photo Photosport

But the home team are looking for the recovery that will see them repeat a series victory in Dunedin, just as they did in a high-scoring contest against Pakistan last summer.

However, looking to the local conditions is not likely to be sufficient on its own.

New Zealand has had serious batting problems exposed, especially with Nathan Astle being taken out of the batting equation by his own fault or through decisions against him. However, all the batsmen go under the microscope tomorrow after a run of poor performances.

Conditions should favour the batsmen and while batting first has to be the main consideration on such a good pitch, the fact remains that New Zealand did win after an outstanding 280-plus run chase last year.

That sort of score will not be to the fore this year given the nature of the lower scores since the bouncer law came into effect, but the game still has the potential to be the highest scoring encounter of the series.

New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming ruled out opening the innings as he did last year.

The batsmen had been selected as openers and that was their role. Fleming's job was to get the majority of runs on the board and said he would be doing that in the middle-order.

He hinted that New Zealand would retain the same 11 as in Auckland, meaning Brendon McCullum will bat on his home ground with Ian Butler again 12th man.

Fleming said the instructions for the batsmen were simple: "It's a fine line between being aggressive and being reckless and we spent too much time in the reckless zone.

"What I'm asking for, and looking for, as a batting unit is that you are getting one or two performances, or half performances but you're getting nothing else, so it's all or nothing. And it's not one, two or three players, it's one or nothing.

"What we've got to get is contributions. If a guy is having his day you have got to get guys supporting that with 30, 40 or 50 while he goes on to get 80-100. That's how you get the big scores and that's when you see (Chris) Cairns, (Chris) Harris and (Andre) Adams come in and finish the innings," he said.

Matthew Hoggard Photo Photosport

England had been bowling very well at the top of the innings and Matthew Hoggard had produced two especially impressive opening spells.

"There's a fine line between giving them respect and taking the initiative, that's what the guys at the top and the guys through the middle have to assess," he said.

Having another dasher of a batsman in McCullum at the top of the order was a case of trying to extend the strike rate.

It didn't use many more overs, but it did require a higher risk rate.

"That is what we are trying to do, create a longer period of the ability to get a strike rate," he said.

Fleming was also looking to take impetus from the Carisbrook crowd.

"It's a good crowd, a great crowd. We enjoy it, they are very loud. These are our people. It's like Auckland. That's why we were so disappointed. It's the first time we've ever played in front of a full house in Auckland and we wanted to win desperately.

"It's the same down here. We get a good crowd, they're very passionate about it. We just want to do well, so we will tap into that if we can and play well and get them on our side," he said.

The weather forecast is for a fine day and the perfect finale to a 15-game campaign for the CLEAR Black Caps in which the overall count is six won, eight lost, and one to play.

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