KEY POINTS:
New Zealand will turn to their fast men as they look to tighten their grip on the test series against England when the second international starts at the Basin Reserve today.
A day of musings over whether New Zealand would opt to retain the same XI which beat England so convincingly in the first test at Hamilton were put to bed last night when fast-medium Mark Gillespie was confirmed to replace offspinner Jeetan Patel.
And with that came the expectation that if New Zealand captain Daniel Vettori maintains his impressive record of winning the toss, he will bowl first on a pitch expected to help the seam bowlers for at least a large part of the first day.
One look at the pitch yesterday suggested including an extra seamer in support of Chris Martin and Kyle Mills.
The option to the bouncy Gillespie was uncapped Grant Elliott, who would have strengthened the batting and provided extra swing bowling.
Gillespie will start his second test, on his home patch, having recovered from a shoulder injury suffered against Bangladesh in late December.
He is lively, took five wickets on debut in South Africa late last year, and does move the ball. But, as Australia demonstrated before Christmas, he is eminently hittable if he gets it wrong.
The pitch has plenty of grass and a greenish tinge to it. It will have a No 1 haircut before the start and should brown off, given the anticipated good, dry conditions over the early days of the test.
But by omitting Patel, New Zealand have indicated they would rather bat last, given the pitch is unlikely to break up on the final day.
And there is another aspect to bowling first. New Zealand put England through the wringer on the last day in Hamilton last Sunday, dismissing them for 110 in only 55 overs.
They will fancy getting stuck in and keeping the heat on an under-performing England batting line-up.
Equally, England have batsmen, notably key man Kevin Pietersen, who are due a big innings, remembering the old line about the permanency of class and up-and-down nature of form.
"I'd say we are 50/50 on whether to bat or bowl," Vettori said yesterday.
He admitted to surprise at the amount of grass on the pitch, "but the groundsmen are their own entity and have their prerogative to do what they want with their own wickets".
But if that sounded a barb aimed at groundsman, Australian Brett Sipthorpe, Vettori said he was not disappointed by the strip's appearance.
"That's the nice thing about cricket. You go round the world and you get different conditions and good teams adapt to them and that is what we have to do.
"We can't just turn up and expect things favourable all the time."
The Basin has a history of helping fast-medium bowlers prepared to bend their backs. Equally it is a hard, true surface with the promise of plenty of runs through the middle of the test.
England have been bold in their bid to get back into the series.
They have dropped senior pace pair Steve Harmison and Matthew Hoggard, neither of whom impressed in Hamilton.
In come Stuart Broad and James Anderson. The former bowled well during the ODI series; Anderson took two for 95 off 38 overs for Auckland against Wellington.
One thing is becoming clear: Vettori is keen on keeping the foot down, being pro-active, enhancing a position rather than simply holding it.
He recognises New Zealand have put the first stone in place for what would be an outstanding series win, but much work lies ahead.
Sitting back and allowing England to dictate is not part of the plan.
It promises to be a fascinating five days.
NZ V ENGLAND
Basin Reserve, starts 10.30am today
* New Zealand: Daniel Vettori (c), Jamie How, Matthew Bell, Stephen Fleming, Mathew Sinclair, Ross Taylor, Jacob Oram, Brendon McCullum, Kyle Mills, Mark Gillespie, Chris Martin.
* England: Michael Vaughan (c), Alastair Cook, Andrew Strauss, Kevin Pietersen, Ian Bell, Paul Collingwood, Tim Ambrose, Stuart Broad, Ryan Sidebottom, James Anderson, Monty Panesar.
