Stephen Fleming makes his 250th BLACKCAPS appearance in his home town of Christchurch today hoping to put The National Bank Series beyond the West Indies’ reach.
Fleming’s appearance for an ICC World XI last year gives him one more international appearance than team-mate at fellow Cantabrian Chris Harris.
However, he draws level with the veteran all-rounder at Jade Stadium, where victory would clinch an unassailable 3-0 lead in the One-Day International series.
But Fleming was typically pragmatic, and sought only to complete the 100% record Sri Lanka denied the BLACKCAPS last month.
He said: "We're very mindful of how good they can be; we saw that for 20 overs down in Queenstown. If we do slip up, we know they're there to take us. Whatever we do we won't be compromising the game.
"We can't afford to, we're just not that good.
"If we do slip up, we know they're there to take us. It's more a matter of looking at what we're doing in our squad, and it's very much the selectors who are working through that.”
Jade Stadium has been a happy hunting ground for the side with wins over the Sri Lankans and a Chappell-Hadlee Trophy triumph over Australia.
The track has also been batter-friendly, with high scoring in both the previous games this season.
Fleming added: “We know how to play on it because we've chased down big scores and set some good scores.
"It's a good ground to play at; tough on the bowlers, but they've had a pretty good run to date and their confidence is pretty high. It should be a good measure."
Kyle Mills remains on standby cover for Michael Mason, while Hamish Marshall returns in place of Jamie How.
The tourists still cannot call on Dwayne Bravo, although he will return for the last two One-Day Internationals, but as a batsman only.
BLACKCAPS: Nathan Astle, Shane Bond, Stephen Fleming (captain), Peter Fulton, James Franklin, Brendon McCullum, Michael Mason, Hamish Marshall, Jeetan Patel, Scott Styris, Daniel Vettori, Lou Vincent.
West Indies (from): Shivnarine Chanderpaul (captain), Ramnaresh Sarwan, Chris Gayle, Wavell Hinds, Daren Ganga, Runako Morton, Dwayne Smith, Denesh Ramdin, Ian Bradshaw, Rawl Lewis, Fidel Edwards, Jerome Taylor.
