New Zealand face their pace demons

If the first 25 overs of this Chappell-Hadlee Series are any indication, then Australia have a fight on their hands if they are to wrest the trophy from New Zealand. Daniel Vettori's bold decision to face their pace demons paid off with Brendon McCullum and Jamie How setting a firm platform of 3 for 123 after the early loss of Lou Vincent.

But then came two wickets, How and Scott Styris as Shaun Tait, in his first international at his home ground, began to unsettle them. They now have some rebuilding work to do and will rely on McCullum to lead them further.

The visitors admitted before the match that pace has been a weakness, but McCullum stood up to everything that Australia - in the mighty form of Brett Lee, Shaun Tait and Nathan Bracken - could throw at him, and then some, using the pace of a quick pitch well to launch a sturdy assault. He offered a series of terrific drives and cuts square of the wicket, the highlight so far a flat six over point off Lee.

Tait also got the treatment in his first international match at home, with one over disappearing for three cover-driven fours, although in his second spell - McCullum by now on 67 - he did prompt a chancy inside-edge into space and he eventually struck to remove How and then Styris, both edging.

McCullum, who headed into this match on the back of a quality 88 against the Chairman's XI and a tidy series in South Africa, had to weather an early barrage in which he was cut him in half more times than a busy magician's assistant. Then it was his turn to do the cutting and he had scored the bulk of the runs as the fifty partnership came up off as many balls between him and the more circumspect How.