England have won the toss and elected to bat first in the opening game of the five match one-day cricket series against New Zealand at Westpac Stadium here today.
In positive news for the hosts Daniel Vettori and Jacob Oram have returned to the starting line-up after recovering
from ankle and hamstring problems respectively.
Captain Vettori missed the two-match Twenty20 series while Oram was rested from the second game in Christchurch on Thursday as a precaution.
New Zealand have opted to play two spinners with Jeetan Patel backing up Vettori. Michael Mason - who replaces under-19 World Cup-bound bowler Tim Southee - and allrounder Paul Hitchcock have been omitted while Daniel Flynn, who made his debut in the second Twenty20 is the substitute fielder.
England made two changes to the side that swept the Twenty20 series. Test and one-day opener Alastair Cook replaces Luke Wright while Ravi Bopara has his first outing of the tour at the expense of hard-hitting allrounder Dimitri Mascarenhas.
The English side is identical to the one which claimed their one-day series in Sri Lanka 3-1 in November.
New Zealand: Daniel Vettori (captain), Brendon McCullum, Jesse Ryder, Jamie How, Ross Taylor, Scott Styris, Peter Fulton, Jacob Oram, Kyle Mills, Jeetan Patel, Chris Martin, Paul Hitchcock (12th man).
England: Paul Collingwood (captain), Alastair Cook, Phil Mustard, Ian Bell, Kevin Pietersen, Owais Shah, Ravi Bopara, Graeme Swann, Stuart Broad, Ryan Sidebottom, James Anderson, Luke Wright (12th man).
- NZPA
