KEY POINTS:
Australian captain Ricky Ponting insisted the Shaun Tait furore fired up his side to bury New Zealand in last night's Chappell-Hadlee Trophy cricket opener in Adelaide.
Ponting's unbeaten 107, his 24th one-day international century, helped the world champions cruise to their target of 255 by seven wickets with 45 balls to spare.
It left the tourists with the huge task of back to back wins in Sydney tomorrow and Hobart on Thursday to retain the trophy.
Tait was hammered early on by New Zealand's hero Brendon McCullum, who hit 96 off 103 balls, before returning to remove Jamie How, Scott Styris and captain Daniel Vettori for 10-over figures of three for 59.
Ponting said he was stunned at inferences from the New Zealand camp that Tait had an illegal action and said it steeled the hosts at the Adelaide Oval.
"That seems to be their opinion that they seem to have some concern about his action and to air it publicly like they did is a bit disappointing," man of the match Ponting said.
"They are entitled to their opinions I suppose, but it probably makes us a little bit more hungry to get out there and play more good cricket against them."
Vettori admitted he was caught off guard by the question about speedster Tait's whippy action on Thursday and claimed he never meant to insinuate he was a chucker.
But Vettori still refused to state he was satisfied with Tait's action last night.
"After speaking to Roshan Mahanama I know there's a process in place if you feel that a bowler has an illegal action, and obviously we haven't gone through that process."
Vettori said 280 was the bare minimum score required last night after he won the toss, and felt the last 20 overs of New Zealand's innings and the first 10 of Australia's decided the match.
With McCullum playing Tait and Brett Lee with ease, New Zealand cruised to 147 for three off 30 overs but lost their way, scoring just 59 off the last 10.
"We let ourselves down purely from the loss of wickets and the loss of momentum," Vettori said.
Ross Taylor made a welcome return to form with 50 off 52 balls while big hitter Jacob Oram was kept in check at the death and only managed 32 not out off 38 balls.
Then Adam Gilchrist seized the match for Australia with 51 off 29 balls, including six fours and two sixes, before Ponting took over to score his third century in his last four innings against New Zealand.
Pacemen Kyle Mills and Mark Gillespie took two for 68 and none for 72 respectively.
"We're confident those guys can do the job but you have to have to look at the way Gilchrist played, it was pretty fantastic and pretty brutal," Vettori said.
"I won't lay all the blame on my bowlers, just sit back and admire that innings."
Chris Martin was a late selection in place of spinner Jeetan Patel to give the pace ranks more depth, and after a solid start he went for 19 off one over against Ponting and ended with one for 52 off nine.
He and Patel will compete for the last bowling spot in Sydney, depending on the state of the pitch.
Vettori said the batting in the first half of the innings was the biggest positive as they look to square the ledger.
"We're coming off question marks over whether we play pace or not and I'd like to think we answered that today. We played them pretty well even though they came back at the end."
SCOREBOARD
New Zealand
L Vincent c Hopes b Lee 5
B McCullum c Bracken b Hogg 96
J How c Hayden b Tait 20
S Styris c Gilchrist b Tait 5
R Taylor c Tait b Lee 50
J Oram not out 32
M Sinclair c Hogg b Hopes 2
D Vettori b Tait 18
K Mills not out 7
Extras (1b, 5lb, 8w, 5nb) 19
Total (for 7 wkts, 50 overs) 254
Fall: 16 (Vincent), 115 (How), 123 (Styris), 175 (McCullum), 197 (Taylor), 201 (Sinclair), 241 (Vettori).
Bowling: B Lee 10-0-48-2 (4nb, 6w), N Bracken 10-3-52-0 (1nb), S Tait 10-0-59-3 (2w), J Hopes 10-0-40-1, B Hogg 10-1-49-1.
Australia
M Hayden c and b Mills 17
A Gilchrist c Taylor b Martin 51
R Ponting not out 107
M Clarke c Vincent b Mills 48
A Symonds not out 28
Extras (1w, 3nb) 4
Total (for 3 wkts, 42.3 overs) 255
Fall: 69 (Hayden), 75 (Gilchrist), 210 (Clarke).
Bowling: K Mills 10-1-68-2, M Gillespie 10-0-72-0 (2nb, 1w), C Martin 9-1-52-1 (1nb), J Oram 4.3-0-25-0, D Vettori 8-0-32-0, S Styris 1-0-6-0.
Result: Australia won by seven wickets.
- NZPA
