Cricket: Acid test for Astle and Vettori as they put confident spin on fitness

New Zealand got their cricketing version of mission impossible off on a positive note yesterday as key men Nathan Astle and Daniel Vettori declared themselves fighting fit for the first test against Australia starting on Thursday.

The pair have spent recent days under injury clouds, Astle with a right shoulder problem and Vettori with continued back soreness, but both put a confident spin on their fitness yesterday.

"It's good, it was just a bit of a niggle in the AC joint," said Astle. "It was more precautionary than anything else. With the [one-day] series gone I just wanted to rest it and be right for Thursday.

"Everything's fine - throwing, batting, I haven't had a bowl yet, but I'm sure that'll be all right as well."

Astle sat out the gloomy finish to the one-day series whitewash in Napier on Saturday and holds several positives going into the Christchurch game, his 67th test.

Last time he set foot on Jade Stadium in a test three years ago, he scored the fastest test double-century - a staggering 28 fours and 11 sixes in 222 off 168 balls - all in a losing cause, as England won by 98 runs.

And in his last five tests against Australia he scored 448 runs for an average of 56, including 156 not out in Perth in 2001-02 as New Zealand went close to an upset series victory.

"You do get some memories flooding back, it's hard not to, but it's a new game," he said.

"Those memories help you relax a bit more and not have so much anxiety when you walk out.

"It's always nice to play at your home ground, but that innings was a once-in-a-lifetime one which I'll struggle to repeat," said Astle, who expected the usual batsman's paradise pitch at Jade Stadium.

Astle, who averaged 33 in the one-day series, was having nothing of talk of a mentally disintegrating side after the towellings delivered by a super-confident Australian line-up in the past fortnight.

The team "signed off" on the one-day series on Sunday night. If anyone was in any doubt, coach John Bracewell ordered full whites to be worn in the nets at the High Performance Centre at Lincoln yesterday.

The batsmen, including newcomer Craig Cumming and recalled Lou Vincent, were given a torrid workout, mainly involving team-mates hurling deliveries from 15m away.

Vettori and the rest of the New Zealand attack did not bowl in the indoor nets, but will top off their preparations today.

Vettori - New Zealand's main wicket-taking hope with 188 victims from 59 tests, just 12 short of joining Sir Richard Hadlee and Chris Cairns in New Zealand's 200 club - was upbeat despite captain Stephen Fleming's concerns about his fitness after the Napier match.

"Tomorrow it'll be eight or nine overs, normal preparation I always have for a test match," he said.

"I'm pretty confident about what I can do. I talked to Stephen [Fleming] and John [Bracewell] about it and I won't be putting any restrictions on myself and they won't be putting any on me either.

"It'll just be a feel thing but I'm reasonably confident at the moment."

Vettori said there was always some degree of back soreness, but he had learned to manage it.

He hoped Fleming's use of him would not change, saying he expected to "set up camp at one end" and apply pressure to the free-scoring Australians.

- NZPA