Historic series win within grasp

The Brendon McCullum-Mike Hesson regime is on the cusp of its biggest one-day international series triumph in today's third match against India.

Victories away in South Africa and England were laudable but to defeat the world champions just over a year out from the next World Cup would be a further tribute to consistent team selection and players who have been given the freedom to express their skills within an aggressive New Zealand structure.

"Good sides win series consistently and that is where we want to get," said strike bowler Tim Southee. "That is the approach Brendon and Mike have brought by showing we can go out and play our natural game. We are an exciting batting line-up with ball strikers all the way down. If they put the runs on the board again, it will allow us bowlers to be aggressive all the way through the innings."

A win cannot be assumed but there is every opportunity for the team to keep taking the public with them if they achieve one, especially in the shadow of the crisis created by an Indo-Australo-Anglo axis threatening to flex its muscle and the expectation they will further ostracise smaller test nations.