Wellington, Feb. 27: Sixty-one from 47 balls against Australia and 56 not out from 49 balls against India on Wednesday night might sound reasonable, but Kiwi wicketkeeper batsman Brendon McCullum has been virtually anonymous at the crease, partly it has to be said due to a lack of strike.

New Zealand coach Andy Moles cannot predict how McCullum will bat tonight, but confirmed he was not under instructions to play second fiddle to anyone.

"From the outset his target is to play as he has always played but he struggled to get going on the two paced wicket [in Christchurch] and the people he was batting with took the game to the Indians so he played the support role," stuff. co. nz quoted Moles, as saying.

"I thought he played a very good innings. He is an experienced and very good all-round player and in the Twenty20 version of the game he showed he can play all types of innings. The mark of really good players is they get a score when they are not on top of their game and we''ve seen from Brendon in the last two innings that he is not in peak form but he is taking the responsibility of seeing the side home so that in itself is a great skill," Moles added.

Moles is confident McCullum and Jesse Ryder are the right opening pair despite Martin Guptill (No3) being the form player over the last fortnight.

"We know what Jesse is capable of, we just need to get him firing," Moles said.

"Our top five or six batsman all score at a fantastic rate. They are destructive players and we are looking for two or three of those players to come off in every game and then we should be able to chase any target," he said.

Moles indicated New Zealand were desperate to claim the two-match series tonight and had targeted rotating the strike and hitting the blockhole with the ball as areas of improvement. (ANI)