KEY POINTS:
Lion tamers New Zealand and England are facing similar selection dilemmas as they approach next Friday's critical showdown at St Lucia.
Brimming with confidence after each scoring series wins over Australia, the two main Group C protagonists will open their World Cup account with a shootout at Beausejour Stadium that could yet decide their semifinals fates.
Under the format rules, second round teams will only carry through those points earned against fellow qualifiers, meaning the winners of the four groups will start with a handy points advantage over the four runners-up.
With so much riding on Friday's contest, both teams will be anxious to assess the conditions correctly and select the most effective combinations, the latter part of which is looming as possibly the biggest headache for both coaches.
For England boss Duncan Fletcher, there are a couple of major decisions to be made, one in the engine room of his batting line-up and the other in the front line of his pace battery.
Now that Kevin Pietersen has returned to claim an automatic start and Paul Collingwood and Ian Bell have established their positions, the question is whether Fletcher should retain Andrew Strauss or Ed Joyce at the top of the order.
Presuming Vaughan remains fit and available, the English coach is faced with either axing the classy but out-of-form Strauss, or moving him into the opening position at the expense of Joyce, the Irishman who performed impressively in the tri-series.
Strauss has averaged 32.66 from 74 one-dayers, including posting two centuries, but struck lean times on the Australian tour, playing in all 10 of England's CB Series matches and scoring just one half-century, although that 55 against New Zealand at the Gabba was the crucial innings that enabled Paul Collingwood to set up his team for a narrow win and eliminate Stephen Fleming's outfit from the tri-series.
On the other hand, Joyce's arrival signalled something of a renaissance in the England batting, even if his one-day record still reflects a modest average of 26.58 from 12 outings, with a solitary century and half-century.
It was Joyce, after all, who announced his presence after a couple of early misses with a quick 47 against Australia at Perth, and then continued on to smash a rapid 66 against New Zealand and his maiden hundred against the hosts at Sydney.
The decisions don't become any easier when it comes to Fletcher's preferred bowling attack.
With Jon Lewis apparently now fully recovered from the injury to his left ankle, the coach-cum-selector has to settle on a pace combination that will almost certainly have no room for one of Lewis, James Anderson, Liam Plunkett and Sajid Mahmood.
Anderson and Lewis were to the fore at the start of England's tri-series campaign, but it was Plunkett and Mahmood who finished off New Zealand at the Gabba and bowled their side to victory against Australia.
Whatever happens there, it would be a major surprise if England don't play both spinners - Monty Panesar and Jamie Dalrymple - given pitch conditions at most venues are expected to be low and slow, and provide turn.
New Zealand will also have the option of playing a second spinner in Jeetan Patel, and the decision is looming as a vital one for coach John Bracewell and his captain.
With a viral infection affecting the now-established Mark Gillespie and doubt being expressed over his ability to recover in time for the England match, Bracewell is effectively left with a choice between Patel, Daryl Tuffey, and Michael Mason.
And that's assuming he decides to keep his faith in James Franklin, who provided a graphic demonstration of his vulnerability under fire during the warm-up match against Bangladesh, when he conceded consecutive sixes during the penultimate over.
If Gillespie is unavailable and New Zealand have to field an attack that includes Franklin and either Tuffey or Mason, there will be concerns over containment.
And that's just the half of it. Bracewell's other main problem is deciding on a batting line-up that - unless he leaves his bowling dangerously light - won't have room for all his middle-order candidates.
Presuming Jacob Oram bats at his usual No. 6 and Ross Taylor remains at No. 3, there are just two positions remaining for the trio of Scott Styris, and Chappell-Hadlee success stories Peter Fulton and Craig McMillan.
Fulton and McMillan were two of the stars of New Zealand's 330-plus run-chases at Auckland and Hamilton, but Styris is regarded as one of the side's front-line top-order batsmen.
Whoever gets the chop is going to be bitterly disappointed, but it's a better state of affairs than at the 1999 tournament - when New Zealand packed their squad so full of bowlers they couldn't have dropped a batsman if they wanted to.
