Check back this afternoon on nzherald.co.nz for ball by ball live scoring of the crucial one day game against England.
KEY POINTS:
Lord's or home.
When Stephen Fleming began thinking about the future, it boiled down to this: in May, would he rather be batting at Lord's or at home with his wife, Kelly, who is due to give birth to their second child in June.
"When I was faced
with that decision, it was pretty clear to me I wanted to be at home," he said yesterday.
And so the career of New Zealand's most successful and longest-serving captain, a leader who won respect throughout the cricket world, will end not at one of cricket's famous grounds, but at McLean Park in Napier on March 26.
It might have been Trent Bridge in Nottingham, where he has spent the past three years with county Nottinghamshire. Instead, Fleming, 34, has brought forward his retirement by one series.
Had he still been New Zealand captain, things might be different.
"I'd always earmarked the end of the England tour as probably being the time. Going back to Trent Bridge and finishing there was something I'd dreamed about."
He considered whether to go for part of the England tour but "it does get a little bit messy, both for the team and the individual, and if you start doing that I guess you still want to play cricket".
The picture became clearer; family, and moving into the business world, became the priorities.
Fleming lost the test captaincy to Daniel Vettori before last October's tour to South Africa. He had already stepped down from the one-day captaincy after last year's World Cup but was keen to work a dual captaincy operation with Vettori.
The national selectors had other ideas. Fleming admitted that disappointed him.
"I was never one to hold on to it for dear life. Daniel was itching to take the reins and had been for some time, quite rightly so.
"My disappointment came from not knowing whether that would work, rather than losing the captaincy.
"We could have bounced ideas off one another, he would have added some enthusiasm and new ideas to the leadership group. That may have given me some ideas for test cricket."
Fleming said he and Vettori talked about it at the World Cup and "at length" with coach John Bracewell.
During last winter that idea was put to rest when the panel opted to give Vettori both sets of reins.
Fleming described his relationship with Bracewell as "challenging".
"He's a good coach to work with, he's been accepting of ideas.
"There's times he's been challenged, as we all have, by our results and performances.
"At times he's paid the price for being in the spotlight and I'm sure there's some comments he'd like to take back. He certainly challenged me right to the end."
Fleming will play in the first Indian Premier League competition in April, hopes to play for Wellington and is looking forward to a business role with the Australian sports management group Insight.
He is excited at having the chance to transfer his leadership skills from cricket to business.
"I may be rubbish at it but I really want to give it a shot."
Fleming talked of his disappointment at not having made more than nine test centuries, his favourite players, toughest opponents and how New Zealand has been able to "punch above its weight" in world cricket.
"We needed to think about the game a lot more," he said. "We couldn't rely on natural skill, we had to find ways to unsettle the opposition and be thorough about our preparation. We had to know our opponents almost better than ourselves."
His failure to convert more fifties into centuries annoyed him.
"If I converted a lot of those fifties, my average would be up near 45 which is more than respectable."
Australian Shane Warne was the best spinner he faced; brilliant Pakistani left armer Wasim Akram the hardest of the quick bowlers.
Former captain Martin Crowe was "by far" the best batsman he played with, "and probably the best thinker about the game as well".
A personal favourite innings? His 134 not out against South Africa at Johannesburg in the 2003 World Cup, which kept New Zealand alive in the tournament and dumped the hosts.