Shane Warne (top) and Muttiah Muralidharan have teamed up for the first time

Christchurch: How New Zealand fare in the one-day cricket series against a World XI starting here on Saturday will depend on 20 crucial overs when the world?s most successful bowlers ? Shane Warne and Muttiah Muralidharan ? team up for the first time.

Warne and Muralidharan, the past and present world Test wicket record holders, have a total of 1,098 Test wickets and a further 662 one-day International victims between them.

?It?s a huge challenge for us. How we deal with them will probably determine whether we win the games,? New Zealand?s Daniel Vettori said of the dynamic spin duo. ?It?s going to be 20 very tough overs and we have to find a way to play them.?

The thought of Warne and Muralidharan teaming up is almost beyond comprehension for most international batsmen, who have struggled enough with just one at a time. ?Your first six balls against those guys are pretty crucial because that?s when they go in for the kill and they can really do the damage early on,? said Vettori, who partnered Warne in a tsunami fund-raiser in Melbourne on January 10.

The Federation of International Cricketers? Associations (FICA) and New Zealand Cricket (NZC) who assembled the star-studded World XI for the three-match series hope to raise NZ $1 million ($698,000) for the fund.

Vettori?s eyes still glaze over when he recounts his experience of teaming up with Warne in Melbourne last week.

?I found it enthralling the way he attacks the game,? the New Zealand spinner said.

?People respect the fact he?s a great spin artist but people don?t know how much he thinks about it and looks at different players. He?s got a great memory of how he?s got people out in the past.? The main focus in the New Zealand camp was how to limit the damage when Warne and Muralidharan team up, likely between Overs 15 and 35. In the past, survival has been the prime instinct for New Zealand against either of the bowlers, but now there is double trouble it won?t do to block for 20 overs. Chris Cairns will have a big role to play, and going by hints from coach John Bracewell this week, will be used as a batting floater to try to break the spinners up.