KEY POINTS:
New Zealand are steeling themselves for an Australian onslaught when the Chappell Hadlee series resumes in Melbourne today.
Their opponents will be without their captain Ricky Ponting, who has been rested for today and the third match of the series in Sydney on Sunday, but the pressure is mounting for them to play like an Australian side are expected to - that is, to win.
But the absence of the world's leading batsman is a huge boost to New Zealand, already 1-0 up in the series after their last-ball thriller in Perth last Sunday, for both psychological and pragmatic reasons.
Australia are already under the pump, having lost their last four ODIs. Expectations are high, understandable given their longstanding position as the game's pre-eminent team. The question is whether this Australian squad are good enough.
"They've always won, always been the No 1 team in the world. If it's not happening I suppose people want to see it rectified as quickly as possible," New Zealand captain Dan Vettori said.
Australia's stand-in skipper Michael Clarke has no doubts Australia will put things right.
"We've got plenty of talent, plenty of potential, plenty of youth, plenty of excitement and if we play our best cricket we can beat the Kiwis."
He certainly talks a great game and Vettori knows what will be required today. "We know we have to play exceptionally well to win, and if we're distracted at all it's to our detriment," he said in reference to the Glovegate saga, which one Australian journalist did her best to beat the daylights out of yesterday.
In Vettori's mind, the incident involving Australian wicketkeeper Brad Haddin - whose gloves dislodged the bails when Neil Broom was erroneously given out bowled in Perth - is over.
He said there was no bad blood between the teams, confirmed he had sent a text to Haddin - the gist of which was that they would agree to disagree and move on - and wanted to focus on today's match.
When the journalist asked Vettori if he thought Haddin was a cheat, the captain replied: "I think that's a very low question, and I think you know the answer."
Clarke went in to bat for Vettori yesterday. "Dan's a great fellow and I know all the boys in the team actually get on with him really well," he said.
Clarke went on to say he could not be "100 per cent positive" the text contained an apology - "I don't know if it said 'sorry', put it that way" - thereby rather kneecapping his captain. A day earlier Ponting had claimed Vettori had apologised over the incident, which the New Zealanders privately vigorously deny.
Vettori wants to keep the same 11 from Perth. He likes the team's balance, with five frontline bowlers and support from medium pacer Grant Elliott.
Australia will make at least one change, with South Australian batsman Callum Ferguson a good chance for a debut. This week he has made successive scores of 81, 115 and 89 on the MCG. Adam Voges, whose only ODI was in Hamilton two years ago, is the other possibility for a start.
The drop-in pitch is the same as that used for a Victoria-South Australia day-nighter on Wednesday, in which the visitors were dismissed for 200.
New Zealand have batted second in 10 of the 12 Chappell Hadlee ODIs so far, winning six and losing five with one washout
But Vettori knows New Zealand must come to grips with winning games when batting first too.
And today? "If I look at the wicket and think it's a bat-first then" - a long pause - "I think I'll do it."
