SYDNEY - New Zealand captain Daniel Vettori slammed his side's performance yesterday after a six-wicket defeat to New South Wales in their final leadup to the first cricket test against Australia.
The tourists didn't bat well enough in either innings against a youthful NSW attack on a lifelessSydney Cricket Ground pitch, and the hosts crawled to their target of 162 in the 53rd over on the final afternoon.
A fiery spell from senior paceman Chris Martin gave New Zealand a glimmer of hope as he reduced NSW to 79 for four, but allrounder Steven Smith and wicketkeeper Daniel Smith added an unbroken 83 to win with 12 overs to spare.
Martin ended with three for 16 off 11 overs in an encouraging return after he missed the Bangladesh tour with a hamstring strain.
Vettori said defeat was unacceptable.
"Absolutely not. We came here with a desire to win the game and the performance for the majority of it, particularly with the bat, was pretty poor."
New Zealand should be injury-free for Thursday's first test in Brisbane.
Vettori said Brendon McCullum's back injury had improved, and he was confident he would be fit to keep wicket.
Jesse Ryder appeared to have recovered from the mystery bug that flattened him on the first two days of the NSW match.
