KEY POINTS:
New Zealand's cricketers fly to Adelaide today with that familiar sinking feeling: how to rectify the top order batting in the face of a pace barrage.
Thanks to a bludgeoning 85 not out from Andrew Symonds and some carnage from express pacemen Brett Lee and Shaun Tait, which
reduced New Zealand to 31 for five, Australia won the Twenty20 match by 54 runs in Perth last night.
Captain Daniel Vettori, still recovering from the two-test capitulation in South Africa, was firing more stern looks at the batsmen as they prepare to defend the Chappell-Hadlee Trophy in Friday night's opener.
"Once again we've got to sort our batting out if we want to compete over here," he told Channel Nine.
"They came out and wanted to bowl fast and bowl well, they did that and we never gave ourselves a chance to bat with Jacob (Oram) and see if we could be there at the end."
Orams batting assault on Symonds offspin in an unbeaten 66 off 31 balls, including six sixes, was a highlight along with a much-improved New Zealand fielding performance and Vettori's bowling.
But in between the wickets tumbled, right from ball one when opener Lou Vincent wafted at a Lee short ball and skied a catch to wicketkeeper Adam Gilchrist as they chased 187 to win.
On a bouncy pitch in front of a 20,000 sellout at the WACA ground, Lee reached speeds of 158km/h and also removed McCullum to a mistimed shot after the wicketkeeper slashed him over backward point for six.
Tait was too quick for the in-form Jamie How and Ross Taylor in the space of three balls then Mathew Sinclair quickly followed, caught behind off Mitchell Johnson's bowling.
Oram showed he will give New Zealand a big chance chasing runs in any match, as long as he has support. He was unbeaten when the tourists were dismissed for 132 with nine deliveries remaining.
Vettori saw enough, particularly from an energetic fielding performance, to give him encouragement for the three-match series.
"Symonds took the game away from us a little bit at the end but the catching was outstanding. Sometimes when you come to Australia you don't always take your catches.
"I think we play so much cricket these days that you can turn around a bad performance pretty quickly.
"Unfortunately it's a bit of a trademark of ours, so hopefully it continues."
A consolation is the pitches in Adelaide, Sydney and Hobart will not be as fast as yesterday's.
Another slight encouragement for the tourists is Symond's fitness after he aggravated a nagging ankle injury late in the match and was to be reassessed today.
Like Oram he flexed his batting muscle in a 46-ball assault after New Zealand removed opener Adam Gilchrist for one to a brilliant left-handed Jeetan Patel catch at backward point off Mark Gillespie.
Patel deceived Michael Hussey and added the scalp of debutant Adam Voges before getting some punishment from Symonds while Vettori was a constant threat, ending with one for 25 off four overs.
Ross Taylor took three outfield catches and should have had a fourth with Symonds on 76, but he threw the ball away after taking a brilliant diving chance in fear of tumbling over the boundary rope.
- NZPA