GR Marsh c Rutherford b Harris 46, Sydney 1990/91.

That's how it all began for Chris Harris in his first bowl in One-Day Internationals.

Now, 157 wickets later, he is set to knock a national cricket icon Sir Richard Hadlee off his position as New Zealand's leading wicket-taker in ODIs.

They share the honour at the moment and while Hadlee did his haul in much quicker time, he was a different type of bowler to Harris, who started out as a slower inswing bowler who now has some variations of the leg roller kind, including a more prominent top spinner.

Hadlee played 115 games and took his wickets at 21.56 while Harris has had 174 games with his wickets at 35.91, an economy rate of 4.33 and a strike rate of 49.6.

Hadlee talked about the record with Harris on their flight to Napier today and when asked by Harris how he would like to see it done, Hadlee said there was only one way, caught and bowled.

Harris has taken 25 of his wickets in the caught and bowled fashion and is one of the better exponents of the knack. And the quality of the impact he has made at international level can be seen from the fact that his most frequent victim has been West Indian maestro Brian Lara.

Predictably, Harris, who still raises the biggest cheer from crowds all around New Zealand when he goes out to bat, is less concerned about getting the record than about seeing New Zealand back on the winning track.

"To be honest I haven't thought a lot about it," he said of the pending feat.

"I guess it's a nice feeling to know you've got the most wickets. I've been around the market a wee while so it's been a long time coming. Obviously it will be highlight I guess. Hopefully, I can contribute to the team's performance," he said.

Harris still likes to see teams going after him because that allows him to use his guile more in the quest for wickets.

He thought Sri Lanka treated him conservatively, being happy to just play him out and pick up 35-40 runs without losing wickets.

"I think if teams have targeted me then I've got a better chance of picking up wickets. If you're going for 50s and 60s then you know they've targeted you. Some teams have, and others have tried to take 35-40 and not give me a wicket.

"If anything, I think Sri Lanka played me more defensively than I expected. They didn't take too many risks against me and there's less opportunity to get wickets if people aren't taking risks.

"The Pakistanis will take more risks against me though," he said.

"If they're playing shots, and you bowl well enough then there's always an opportunity to pick up wickets from any mistake they make or you can bowl a good ball."

Harris likes to get batsmen thinking as much as possible and by reverting to the odd inswinger from his earlier days and mixing with top spinners and leg rollers he is giving them plenty to think about.

"I didn't do that in my first couple of spells yesterday but in the last spell it seemed to be effective. It seemed to get them more tied down in a situation where they were looking to finish the game and get after me and I think it made it more difficult for them to do that."

Harris began his international career after Hadlee had just retired but the impact of his fellow Cantabrian has made its mark.

"It's quite a big name to follow. It's not nice to knock Sir Richard off the mark but from a personal point of view it is a nice achievement. It will be nice to be up there alongside names such as himself."

But the real issue is beating Pakistan, personal milestones are to reflect on. And since he first started playing international cricket there has always been fire and brimstone with the Pakistanis.

"When Waqar and Wasim were at their absolute peak they were probably slightly quicker than they are now. But now you've got Shoaib Akhtar in the middle as well and he's bowling as quick as anyone.

"They all get it through, five of them at plus 130km/h so they've got plenty of options and it makes it pretty difficult especially on a wicket that is helping them.

"Yesterday was disappointing only getting 149. I think there were some really positive signs. We fielded really well and put a lot of pressure on them. And we showed that if we had scored another 40 or 50 it would have been a very good match.

"We just had to go out there and scrap like hell to defend it and I thought we did that reasonably well. We've just got to get more runs on the board really," he said.

And it's not just for his bowling antics that Harris draws the support from crowds. His happy knack batting down the order has got New Zealand out of trouble many times over.

For that reason Pakistan offers him and the younger New Zealanders another challenge.

"You know if you have scored runs against these guys you are playing pretty well. They've got four or five guys who are capable of taking wickets. I'm sure our batters are able to combat that and they're looking forward to the challenge.

"There are some great signs. There are five 20-year-olds, just in their 20s and that has got to be exciting as they are starting to perform now. They are consistently getting it right more often but it is a great sign for the future.

"They seem to be more mature now than they used to be. The advantage of being mature is that you pick up things faster. They're good listeners too," he said.

That is encouraging through what has been a dark summer to date.

But when that 159th wicket falls there will be some sunshine in the hearts of most Kiwi cricket fans for Harris' success.

© CricInfo