New Zealand celebrated their thrilling two-wicket win over Australia long into the Napier night but will sweat on the fitness of Daniel Vettori and Jacob Oram as they look to go 2-0 up in the Chappell-Hadlee Trophy one-day cricket series.
The teams fly to Auckland today for game two on Saturday after man of the match Ross Taylor (70 off 71 balls) and the recalled Scott Styris (49 not out off 34 balls) guided home the pursuit of 276 to win.
There was a postscript to the tense finale when Styris and Australian paceman Mitchell Johnson clashed heatedly with shoulders and heads in the 46th over, with match referee Ranjan Madugalle finding both in breach of the International Cricket Council (ICC) code of conduct.
Styris insisted "nothing untoward" happened but was slapped with level one breach and fined 15 percent of his match fee while Johnson got level two and was fined 60 percent of his match fee.
Johnson was deemed to have engaged in "deliberate and inappropriate physical contact with his opponent", while Styris was found to have contributed to the earlier verbal exchange.
The pair will resume their rivalry at Eden Park as New Zealand await medical reports on Vettori and Oram.
Vettori was ruled out just before the toss with a neck injury suffered at training while Oram was assisted off with what appeared a serious knee injury in the 28th over after he fell awkwardly.
Oram, who was ready to bat at No 11 if required, was due to have scans in Auckland today and stand-in captain Taylor wasn't optimistic.
"We'll have to wait and see but it's not looking too good. It was a big blow not having him, not only his bowling but his batting. Hopefully we get some good news and he's not out for too long," Taylor said.
The outlook was better for Vettori, who apparently suffers from a chronic neck problem and was confident of being fit for Saturday.
Said Taylor: "It's good to get a win first up but I don't want to get too carried away. In all aspects of the game we played pretty well but there's some we need to work on. Hopefully we can review well and hopefully Dan's back for the next game."
It was New Zealand's fifth consecutive ODI win over Australia on home soil as the bowling and fielding was excellent in restricting the tourists to 275 for eight on a dream batting pitch.
Then in the chase, Brendon McCullum and Peter Ingram scored breezy 40s before Taylor took control, then looked to have blown it when caught on the boundary before veteran Styris stepped up with cameos from Neil Broom, Daryl Tuffey and Shane Bond. They got home with four balls to spare.
An unimpressed Australia captain Ricky Ponting said his side were 30-40 runs short of a winning total and accused his batsmen of taking things for granted as Michael Hussey topscored with a run-a-ball 59.
"A lot of our batsmen need to look at themselves long and hard to make sure they do better next time," said Ponting, who hit 44 off 56 balls before James Franklin removed him to a brilliant Martin Guptill catch.
"Every game that we play has to be like it is your last. I didn't think we were necessarily playing with that sort of attitude tonight, especially with our bowling and our fielding."
