KEY POINTS:
The kind of conditions that gave Sir Richard Hadlee's opponents nightmares at Trent Bridge hold the key to New Zealand's cricketers squaring the series against England in the third test starting here today.
With Daniel Vettori determined to lead his side to a 1-1 series draw, a correct call to England's Michael Vaughan at the toss could be one of the skipper's more crucial offerings.
The covers stayed on the pitch throughout yesterday, and despite the forecast of improving weather both bowling attacks will be eagerly awaiting the first morning.
Bowling first is a ticket to success at Trent Bridge this season, where the average first innings score in county cricket is just 213, and no team have reached 300 in 10 completed innings.
Not only will there be juice in the pitch, due to a lack of sun and plenty of time under cover in recent days, but also helpful atmospheric conditions.
Groundsman Steve Birks said the ball had swung generously at every match this season, played in similar overcast, humid conditions. New Zealand's pacemen haven't imposed themselves on England's top-three and exposed their vulnerable middle order in the first two tests, bar some sharp spells from Chris Martin at Lord's and the gutsy into-the-wind efforts from Iain O'Brien at Old Trafford.
O'Brien is likely to miss the cut here, given Tim Southee's resurgence with a five-wicket haul in Northampton, where Kyle Mills also improved and is due to step up at the scene of his test debut four years ago.
"If we win the toss ... we've got some good seam and swing bowlers who can make good use of it," allrounder Jacob Oram said. "Dan [Vettori] has been our best bowler and it would have been nice to have a turner to keep his good form going.
"But if it shortens the game up a bit with a green seamer, who knows, it might bring the two sides even closer."
Oram said he'd fully recovered from his neck injury suffered at fielding practice at Old Trafford, and spent the time off at Northampton working on generating swing and extra bounce.
"I did some work with the bowling coach [Dayle Hadlee] on ways to maybe get a bit more penetrative. My rhythm's good enough now to keep a low RPO [runs per over], but how can we induce a few more wickets?"
The big question concerns New Zealand's temperaments after they took control at Old Trafford for the first two days then folded in a familiar second innings collapse.
Oram said it had been spoken about, at length.
"It's a mental thing, it's not a technical thing. We showed in the first innings that technically we're proficient enough to score runs, it's got to be a mental thing where we get too far ahead of ourselves and start to think of totals set, or totals we're chasing.
"If you take a couple of sessions out of Old Trafford then we were the dominant team. That's great to know, but we have to finish it off with a bit more toughness and consistency.
"It's not nice to lose a series, more so when you actually feel like you've gone okay in the series and you should have got something out of it, it would be a bitter pill to swallow."
The batsmen only got a light indoor workout at Hadlee Hall, named after Notts' and New Zealand's favourite pace bowler, with most interest surrounding whether James Marshall or Peter Fulton gets the No 3 spot.
The other members of the top-four are in form, while Brendon McCullum will want to atone for an 11-run test with the bat at Old Trafford.
- NZPA
