Australia's normal bullishness when pitching their tent around the world was replaced by caution yesterday, with captain Ricky Ponting expressing concern about their one-day form heading into the series opener in Wellington on Saturday.
Minutes after arriving in New Zealand for their five-week tour, Ponting said he was unimpressed by his bowlers having to bail them out of several tight spots in the recent VB tri-series. He fears a repeat will be punished by the classier New Zealand lineup.
Ponting also recognised the threat New Zealand conditions pose, with pitches generally providing slow, sideways movement.
The Australian captain has never played a test in New Zealand but he's seen the best fail here, often to catches in front of the wicket from balls that have held up.
"There is a lot of improvement to come in our team, especially with our one-day cricket in the last few months," Ponting said.
"It's probably time some of the batsmen put their hands up. We haven't done that of late. We understand and know New Zealand are a very good one-day side and we have to achieve our targets and our goals to be competitive in this series."
Ponting may even have been referring to himself. He, Adam Gilchrist, Andrew Symonds and Simon Katich all averaged in the 20s, so it was left to man-of-the-series Brett Lee, with 16 wickets, and Glenn McGrath (15) to get the side out of jail.
"A lot of the one-day results we've seen here over the last few years have been fairly low totals and we understand that overhead conditions will play a bit of a part in the way the ball moves around in the air and off the seam.
"Most of the guys have played a fair bit of cricket here, so it will be up to me to make sure I'm reading the conditions right."
Those comments reinforce the view that Australia are treating the tour seriously and not as light entertainment before their Ashes tour to England in July.
The statistics also point to a competitive series. New Zealand not only drew the Chappell-Hadlee one-day series in Australia before Christmas but perhaps more significantly are unbeaten in a series at home for more than four years.
New Zealand were the most successful one-day side in the world during 2004, winning 19, drawing two and losing just four of their 25 matches to give them a winning percentage of 76. Australia were second with 73 per cent, while Sri Lanka had a 71 per cent success rate.
"I think a lot of the media are talking about the Ashes series," Ponting said.
"We know that we have got this very big and vital series to play first.
"New Zealand are a very good side and they are hard to beat in Australia and a lot harder to beat, obviously over here."
The only sticky spot for Ponting yesterday was his reaction to the recent umpiring furore, with both Pakistan coach Bob Woolmer and former New Zealand test opener Mark Richardson questioning the number of decisions that went the way of the world's No 1 team.
Ponting doubted the airing of people's concerns would work in reverse by making umpires subconsciously work against Australia.
"I don't think so because they're making the decisions they think are right at the time. Let's hope they keep doing that anyway.
"That's what umpiring is all about and I don't think they will be under any more pressure."
Ponting said touring teams invariably felt as though they got the rough end of the stick from officials.
"It's just the way the game goes, sometimes you get things in your favour, sometimes you don't."
- JONATHAN MILLMOW