Cricket: Standing up to our bigger cousins

Tonight New Zealand tackle Australia for the 170th time.

The numbers favour Australia strongly, as you'd expect. (For the record, they have won 24 of the 48 tests, lost seven, drawn 17; won 81 of the 118 ODIs, lost 32 with five no results; and won all three Twenty20 contests).

But from an unpromising beginning, 64 years ago, through the exhilarating nights of the ODI battles in the 1980s to today, it has invariably produced robust, healthy competition.

Provided New Zealand are up to their best, they should again give the Aussies a decent shake over the course of nine internationals across the three forms in the next few weeks.

When Australia came to Wellington in 1946 and rolled New Zealand for 42 and 54 it probably confirmed their fears that their Tasman brothers weren't much chop. It took 27 years for them to grant New Zealand a second chance. Within three months, Glenn Turner's brace of hundreds at Christchurch carried New Zealand to their famous first test victory over Australia.

Pick your own highlights from the 36 years since that momentous occasion.

The underarm incident of February 1, 1981 will forever stay in the memory.

So too, Richard Hadlee's nine for 52, and 15 for 123 which, alongside Martin Crowe's sumptuous 188 and John Reid's 108 sealed a crushing innings and 41-run win in Brisbane in 1985.

Likewise the gripping final day at Melbourne in December 1987, when Australia's last pair hung on for 25 minutes for a draw against the mighty Hadlee. Umpire Dick French's rejection of Danny Morrison's lbw appeal against Craig McDermott at the death remains one of the great injustices on this side of the drink.

Remember the 1990 win at the Basin Reserve, when John Wright played one of his finest innings for New Zealand; or the Eden Park victory in 1993, New Zealand's last test win over Australia?

Fast forward to the 3-0 dumping of Australia in the ODI series in 2007, the last time they visited here, when New Zealand twice chased down 330-plus targets. Rousing days indeed.

This Australian squad (make that squads, as there are three different ones for each discipline) might not rank alongside their finest, such as Ian Chappell's men of the early 1970s; or Steve Waugh's all-conquering mob around the start of the last decade.

But they have champion players, led by Ricky Ponting, who will want to some day pass Sachin Tendulkar as holder of all the key batting records.

What of New Zealand's chances? Probably harder as the tour goes on. They'll fancy their prospects in the two Twenty20 clashes tonight and on Sunday in Christchurch.

In last season's Chappell Hadlee ODI series, New Zealand led 2-0 and lost the next two, before rain ruined a thrilling finish in Brisbane. Dan Vettori's men will take confidence from that.

The tests are a tall order. History tells us that. Still, looking on the bright side, that 17-year drought has to end some time.