India held sway in the last two matches pushing New Zealand to the back-foot but Ross Taylor says the current do-or-die situation will ultimately work in the favour of his team and help it make a comeback in the one-day series.
Both the teams will clash in the third one-dayer at the AMI stadium on Sunday.
"After the rained-out game at Wellington, we need to win. Dan's (Vettori) told us it's a must-win game. We have been in the situation before with the West Indies, and we have come out winning the must-win games. So hopefully the pressure we can put ourselves under will work in our favour," said Taylor.
"I guess there will be a bit of nervousness about that. Hopefully we can put on a decent score and bat first for a change," said Taylor.
"If we lose tomorrow there is no chance of winning, whereas if we win we have a chance of keeping it alive to win the series. We have risen in the past to the occasion so hopefully we can do it again."
Talking about India's batting which has helped the visitors dominate the previous two games, Taylor said: "They got off to a flier here in the T20 and their batters will be licking their lips. But our batters would be expecting to do the same as well. That small boundary (square off the wicket) will be peppered a bit.
"Their batting line-up is formidable in any form of the game. But in this one-day series, we are still in with a sniff despite not playing as well as we would have liked to. So hopefully we will get a little bit of the momentum back that we had in the Twenty20 matches," Taylor added.
The 24-year-old right-hander, who has three ODI hundreds under his belt, said he was disappointed with New Zealand's failure to execute their plans in the ODIs.
"I am a little bit disappointed in the way we bowled. We knew our plans and what we needed to do, but just didn't execute it as well as we would have liked to. But we have our plans in place for this match," he said.
Taylor said his side would be targetting Indian opener Virender Sehwag.
"You want to get him out early, but at the same time there is a bit of an awe factor in watching him. I'm sure the New Zealand public have enjoyed his game. From a spectacle point of view it has been amazing. But hopefully we don't get to see that tomorrow," he said.
"We have to bowl a tight line as the Indian batsmen like width. But we have to pitch it up a little bit more. We have been punished square of the wicket, which are generally short in New Zealand," added Taylor.
Asked about his fitness, Taylor said, "I am getting there slowly. In Australia I felt very good at times and felt sore the next day. I'm feeling pretty good but I'm still a long way off feeling a hundred per cent fit," he said.
