Cricket: Australia take first blood

The Australian team celebrate after capturing the wicket of Black Caps opening batsman Brendon McCullum. Photo / Mark Mitchell

First blood to Australia, and with some degree of comfort too.

Several steps up in intensity from Pakistan and Bangladesh? With bells on.

Having dismissed New Zealand for a manifestly inadequate 118, Australia kicked off their nine-game tour with a six-wicket win at Westpac Stadium with four overs to spare.

Pugnacious opener David Warner didn't last long enough to try his reverse stance ploy but he and Shane Watson hit 28 off the first two overs.

New Zealand, through their best bowlers, Shane Bond and Dan Vettori, strove to get back into the game. They grabbed three for one in nine balls, and at 38 for three, things were tastily balanced.

However, David Hussey and captain Michael Clarke, with an assertive 67-run stand, made sure there would be no slip-ups as Australia's unbeaten march through this summer continued. Hussey's decisive 46 off 36 balls was the key contribution.

There was no mistaking this was a Twenty20 night. The noise, the colour, the banter all spoke of the shortest game. There was even an early-tour villain upon whom the 21,364 crowd could vent their well-lubricated wit, blond allrounder Watson copping the flak for his verbal work aimed particularly at James Franklin.

New Zealand, having chosen to bat, figured the best of the drop-in pitch would come first.

Vettori had stressed the senior players had to lead the way for his team to match the formidable, and in-form, Australians.

Last night, at least with the bat, they didn't, although Ross Taylor was stiff, bizarrely given lbw by umpire Billy Bowden to a ball which pitched and struck the batsman outside his off stump and was heading down that same line.

New Zealand needed much to go their way, and to be at their best. It didn't happen.

Losing Brendon McCullum to the fourth ball - a beauty from speedster Shaun Tait, matched by a spectacular one-handed catch by wicketkeeper Brad Haddin - set New Zealand back and they didn't really recover.

Australia's ground fielding was sharp close in, although Clarke spilled a straightforward snare at cover off Gareth Hopkins and Haddin dropped a high one off Martin Guptill.

In the outfield they did their work with a commendable air of desperation.

That zip, combined with early wickets, put doubt in the batsmen's minds. This was not a night for hesitation between the wickets.

The eagerly-awaited Tait opening burst didn't disappoint. He was slippery, but when Vettori had suggested his team might use a measure of discretion against the speedster, rather than full-on counter-attacking, he would have had rather more than three runs off his first two overs in mind.

Franklin and Hopkins revived a listing innings. Two of the less heralded players put on a spirited 50 in 30 balls.

Twice lefthander Franklin eased sixes into the crowd round square leg on his way to his best Twenty20 score, and when Tait returned he went for 16 runs in his third over.

But the innings folded like a dodgy souffle, the last six wickets getting 14 in 4.1 overs.

The second Twenty20 match is in Christchurch tomorrow.

JOHNSON: WE WERE NERVOUS

Australia nervous? Absolutely - according to allrounder Mitchell Johnson, who insisted his teammates were twitchy ahead of last night's opening tour match against New Zealand.

That, despite having an unbeaten run this summer over 19 matches.

"Definitely the guys were a little bit nervous coming over, playing a new side and we knew New Zealand love the shorter form of the game and do pretty well in it," he said.

Johnson hopes Australia have put a psychological hold on New Zealand with the ease of their win. "We're in a good state of mind at the moment," he said.

New Zealand batsman James Franklin was disappointed they couldn't leave Australia a reasonable target. "We just didn't really play to our potential. We were probably 30 or 40 runs light with the bat," he said.

As for voluble Australian Shane Watson, who gave Franklin a gobful of advice, both Johnson and Franklin laughed it off.

"It came out of left field. I'm not one to back down so we just barked at one another a bit. It's all fun and games," Franklin said.

Johnson added: "[Watson] likes to get into a bit of a tiff every now and then."