Thriller in Perth

The winning start to the Chappell-Hadlee series last Sunday confirmed that these are exciting times for the New Zealand one-day side. Despite the uncertainty resulting from the overall inexperience of the squad, the seasoned campaigners stepped up to steal a march over a struggling Australia.

As NZ stumbled to victory off the last ball of the game, I felt I needed a stiff drink to fully digest the day's events. An exceptional bowling performance to restrict the Aussies to 181 was followed up by a somewhat nightmarish batting effort, but in the end the win was what mattered even if it took the whole 50 overs to get there. Responsibility brought out the best in Kyle Mills (with ball and bat) and Ross Taylor, the latter in the best form he's been in a long while.

Like other supporters, I'll always remember the match for the Brad Haddin-Neil Broom incident, which showed Aussie gamesmanship reaching a new low. Enough's been said about it already, but to be able to come through from that setback made the win all the more worth savouring.

I fear for NZ's batting, however. A lineup which has Grant Elliott coming in at number 5 is a cause for concern. The kiwis are too heavily dependent on Taylor and McCullum at the top, and Peter Fulton looks out of sorts. However, Martin Guptill and Neil Broom have looked composed in their international outings so far, and can be counted on to spring a couple of surprises.

Despite the scratchy individual efforts of the batsmen, the bowlers did wonderfully well to justify the five-frontline-men policy. The opening win was extremely important because of the confidence the kiwis will be able to take into the next few games. While a wounded Australia can be extremely dangerous, their bowling looks a little less intimidating that it usually has been in recent years - 20 overs of James Hopes and the part-time spinners might actually give NZ an edge in the bowling stakes. Moving on to the MCG tomorrow, this is a great chance for NZ to avenge the defeats in the test series.