Bracewell hits out at Ponting

Christchurch
The verbal jousting has begun, with New Zealand coach John Bracewell accusing Australia of delaying tactics after they slammed the crowd's behaviour at Saturday's first one-day cricket international in Wellington.
Australia's pulsating 10-run win was soured by several incidents, with Matthew Hayden alleging he was spat on, Simon Katich hit by a plastic bottle and man of the match Glenn McGrath having a verbal altercation with a security guard on the boundary rope.
Australian captain Ricky Ponting, pictured right, twice stopped play to complain to the umpires, but the game soon resumed as a fired-up McGrath took four for 16 to dismiss the hosts for 226 in the 49th over before a crowd of 22,533 at Westpac Stadium.
Bracewell said the crowd's behaviour was "certainly not different to what we get in Australia", a view privately backed up by several players who said they were hit by missiles on their pre-Christmas tour across the Tasman.
"I think the tactical awareness as learned by (previous captain) Steve Waugh has been passed on," Bracewell said of Ponting stopping play.
New Zealand batsman Hamish Marshall, who got them to the brink of victory with 76 off 69 balls before being bowled by McGrath, was in full flight when the incidents occurred.
"Hamish had run his arse off, it actually helped him get his breath and calm down again.
"It may have worked in reverse for them. It's just a strategy they often use to try to break up the pattern of the day," Bracewell said.
An angry Hayden said today it wasn't good enough.
"I didn't like the way the crowd performed. They were disappointing, I got spat on. That's not the right behaviour," Hayden said.
"You've got the best two teams in the world playing against each other and it's ridiculous to think that you're going to be physically abused."
New Zealand Cricket chief executive Martin Snedden labelled the incidents "unacceptable" and said security would be spoken to before tomorrow's second match at Jade Stadium.
"We will be discussing how we can avoid a recurrence," Snedden said.
"It wasn't the number of security guards, it was the fact they needed to be more proactive."
Ponting had called for security numbers to be beefed up.
"If you see someone throw something at a player then that security guard has to go up to the stand and get them out.
"Someone's going to get hurt. A full plastic bottle hitting someone in the eye or the back of the head... we don't want that.
"They've got to have some sort of power, get the police involved, whatever."
It wasn't the first crowd trouble encountered by Australian teams in New Zealand.
Five years ago, Waugh halted a match for 15 minutes and threatened to walk his team off the field in Dunedin after players were pelted with debris.
The tyres of their team mini-van were also slashed that night.
In 2002 the Australian sevens rugby team were abused and pelted with plastic bottles by fans at Westpac Stadium, an act which saw them boycott the traditional "farewell" circuit of the ground on the final day.
McGrath said he had most problems with a security guard rather than the crowd Saturday night.
"I had a bit of fun with the crowd all night, I personally didn't have any problems with anyone in the crowd," McGrath said.
"I had an altercation with a security guard on the fence but I was a bit fired up at the time so I should accept 50 per cent of the blame." ? NZPA