Napier: India's skipper MS Dhoni was confident his young outfit would learn from the mistakes that cost them the Twenty20 international matches. However, they didn't learn quickly enough, and the upshot was a 2-0 defeat for the world champions.

India's opening combination of Gautam Gambhir and Virender Sehwag has played a pivotal role in their one-day success in 2008 but Gambhir has struggled in New Zealand. Tendulkar's return, though, means India will have one opener who is playing his first game of the tour, and a No. 3 yet to find form.

New Zealand are quietly confident after their upset win in the Twenty20s. Their fast bowlers provided early breakthroughs and the pressure was increased by Daniel Vettori, who was able to restrict a strong middle-order.

The momentum was provided by Jesse Ryder, Martin Guptill and Ross Taylor while Brendon McCullum batted steadily through the innings and scored match-winning half-centuries. McCullum's innings in the two games was in stark contrast to his usual aggressive approach but he had the backing of both his captain and coach.

Sachin Tendulkar was in New Zealand that Tendulkar opened for the first time in one-day internationals, scoring 82 off 49 balls at Eden Park in 1994.

A defeat in the first day-nighter at the McClean Park would mean India, who will miss the services of Ishant Sharma because of injury in the first match, his spot will be taken by either Praveen Kumar or Munaf Patel. The only other change will be Tendulkar, who takes Ravindra Jadeja's spot from the Twenty20 line-up. Sachin has 16,440 ODI runs, 6765 more than New Zealand's 12 players together.

Highlights of the match