Cricket: Four talking points to watch for at Eden Park as Black Caps host Australia

Martin Guptill's top order hitting is a real asset for New Zealand. Photo / Andrew Cornaga

It's Australia, it's Eden Park, it's showtime.

There'll be a packed house tomorrow night and the chance to ensure a rematch at the same venue next week.

All to play for, then, so what to look for from New Zealand in the Tri-Series T20 clash. Here's four points of note for starters....

1: New Zealand's Eden Park T20 record

Not flash. New Zealand have won just five of 14 and lost the only previous match against Australia. You will remember it too, the retro night in 2005 — the first international T20 — when New Zealand went beige and played it partly for laughs. Ricky Ponting chuckled away, then went to work with his finest T20 innings, 98, which was remarkable at the time because no one had really conceived of the idea one player could score a century in 120 balls, all the while being shared with batting partners. What's more, New Zealand have lost their last three T20s on cricket's oddest-shaped international ground — twice to Pakistan and once, a flogging too, by South Africa when New Zealand looked as if they were batting in a telephone box against legspinner Imran Tahir. It's also a chance to build on the win in Wellington against England, which stopped a losing run at three.

2: Second bite for the newbies

Lefthander Mark Chapman and wicketkeeper-batsman Tim Seifert made a solid fist of their debut at the Cake Tin. Both had little time to find their feet but each hit a couple of sixes, and helped push the total up to the record-equalling ground total. Both looked confident — presumably with the advice to ''be yourselves lads'' ringing in their ears — and the challenge now is to avoid second-match blues. Seifert did have a couple of handling bloopers behind the stumps but as the third T20 gloveman tried this summer let's see if a bit of consistency can settle in, no disrespect to Glenn Phillips, who will surely come again, and Tom Blundell, who is the test incumbent.

3: Guppy goes gangbusters

Martin Guptill is among the gems of the short form game and he, as much as Kane Williamson, set up New Zealand at the Cake Tin with his quality 65 off 40 balls. More power to his arms tomorrow night. He could make mincemeat of the pitch-and-putt straight boundaries.

4: Wipe out the fielding fumbles

New Zealand pride themselves on their out-cricket but the Cake Tin wasn't good. Sure it was swirly up above but two straightforward catches were spilled — Mitchell Santner doing his best Peter Schmeichel impersonation on the long on boundary to deflect a ball over the crossbar for six; and Tim Southee had a complete miss of a skier at deep mid wicket. Some of New Zealand's fielders, Ish Sodhi and Colin Munro leap to mind, aren't among the most athletic in the outfield but as one of the controllable aspects of the game, a point New Zealand captain Williamson is known to be keen on stressing, things need to smarten up.

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