New Zealand went into today's second Chappell-Hadlee Trophy one-day international at Eden Park trying to make it six in a row at home against the world champions.
The winning run continued with a thrilling two-wicket victory in Napier last Wednesday, carrying on from the 3-0 cleansweep in 2007 and the final match of the 2005 series.
While New Zealand clearly lifted for the trans-Tasman rivalry, Australian allrounder Shane Watson had his theory on their struggles in the place they lovingly refer to as the Shaky Isles.
"I was involved in the last tour here and we got flogged in every game. The big difference is the size of the grounds, it's something we've got to get used to and understand," he said.
"Especially batting second, which New Zealand have done successfully against us, no matter what stage of the game, the runs can be chased down because the grounds are so small.
"Even if New Zealand need to get 100-120 in the last 10 overs then it's still gettable, whereas in Australia the grounds are bigger and it's not as easy to score that amount of runs in a period of time."
A year ago New Zealand led the Chappell-Hadlee series 2-0 after chasing down small totals in Perth and Melbourne, before Australia won in Sydney and Adelaide and the decider was washed out.
Today's venue, Eden Park, will host game four on Thursday while either side of that is Hamilton's traditional cricket venue Seddon Park on Tuesday and dual rugby/cricket venue Westpac Stadium in Wellington next Saturday.
Watson said the smaller grounds gave New Zealand more self-belief, and were harder to defend, as evidenced when Scott Styris guided the home side to victory chasing 276 in Napier.
"That's what we've got to get our heads around, no matter what, New Zealand are always in the game," Watson said.
"You can chase down runs as we've seen in the Twenty20, you can from being way out of the game to being involved and very close to winning. You've got to be very conscious of when you're bowling, you're never actually on top of the game, you've got to keep going."
New Zealand captain Daniel Vettori, who went into game two under a fitness cloud with a neck injury, said his team lifted for this series like no other.
Failing to regain the trophy a year ago when they were in charge at 2-0 was another motivating factor.
"Chappell-Hadlee is a massive series for the guys, they really look forward to it, and getting back that trophy would be something pretty special. If we can maintain that record then it's got to be good for the team," he said.
