Batting belief remains despite collapse against unlikely source

Asked prior to the start of the current Test against New Zealand whether there had been opportunity to examine causes of Australia's shock loss in their previous outing to an unheralded West Indies line-up, Josh Hazlewood was typically pragmatic.

While acknowledging some recurring shortfalls from the team's top-order batting might have eventually proved too much to overcome with some late-innings rallying, he also cited the spectacular single efforts of rookie fast bowler Shamar Joseph.

Fast forward to Australia's next Test encounter and it was a similarly greenhorn opponent, albeit one with a vastly different skill set, who caused issues for a batting group that's found its hands full from little-known rivals in the recent past.

Against Pakistan it was fast bowler Aamir Jamal playing in his maiden Test series who performed with ball and bat, then Joseph announced himself to the world with stunning bowling efforts, and today it was former wicketkeeper Glenn Phillips who proved a thorn.

Phillips is playing just his sixth Test and although his debut came against Australia at the SCG four years ago, he was not considered a bowling option in that game and did not take the ball in the five-day format until NZ's recent tour to Bangladesh.

But the 27-year-old, who is so keen to learn about the spin-bowling art he has been seeking any tips he can glean from record-breaking rival Nathan Lyon when their paths cross, proved the latest scourge for Australia batters with 5-45 as NZ skittled their foes for 164 today.

It has set up a daunting if not totally distant chase of 369 for a drought-breaking trans-Tasman Test win, with that target reduced by 111 for the loss of three wickets, in what has become a familiar scenario for the reigning World Test Champions.

"We've had chats since (Brisbane), and I think we've probably been a few too many wickets down for under 200 quite a number of times and it probably caught up with us in that Test," Hazlewood told cricket.com.au before this game began.

"It was one of those things that a remarkable performance from one person really set up the win for the West Indies, so sometimes you just got to weigh those things up."

In that game, Australia finished nine runs shy of their modest victory target of 216 after stumbling to 6-136 in the face of Joseph's probing pace, the third time in as many completed innings they had failed to reach 200 for loss of their first six wickets.

That pattern repeated in both outings in this current game, although Hazlewood's exceptional last-wicket stand of 116 with Cameron Green (174no) lifted their final tally to 383 before the Black Caps in turn crumbled on the bowler-friendly Basin pitch.

Such was the struggle for Australia's top-order batters in the face of Phillips' maiden first-class five-for, Lyon ended the innings as top scorer having contributed a feisty 41 from 46 balls faced in the unfamiliar role of number four having been deployed as night watch on Friday evening.

Despite claiming he has no intention of completing a hat-trick of innings-high scores for the Test team – his other such feat came in his fourth match at Cape Town in 2012, when the 14 runs he found lifted Australia from 9-21 to 47 all out – Lyon wasn't about to cast aspersions on the current batting group.

"I'll never criticise our batters, the way they go about it because they've been exceptional for a number of years now," Lyon said this evening, while acknowledging some wickets may have been lost to unforced errors.

"Then you've got to give credit to the bowlers.

"My big thing is bowlers are actually allowed to bowl good balls, and it's not always the batter's fault to get out.

''Bowlers are allowed to come up with plans and execute and take wickets.

"No doubt there will be some frustration in there (the Australia dressing room), but the best thing about this changeroom is the amount of support and care.

"I've never felt it before in Australian cricket teams, so very good vibes and a pretty good place."

It was Lyon's capacity to concoct and execute a bowling plan that brought him the key wicket of New Zealand's foremost batting threat Kane Williamson for just nine this evening, thereby knocking a large dent in the Black Caps hopes of their first Test win over Australia since 2010.

Several deliveries after moving Steve Smith from a regulation slips position to leg slip to the right-handed Williamson, Lyon began bowling around the wicket and got a ball to spin and bounce sharply at the former NZ skipper who fended it directly into Smith's safe hands.

"That was a plan, and it's nice when plans come off pretty well straight away," Lyon said at day's end.

"I've noticed something in Kane's batting against my bowling, so I tried to exploit that."

But while Australia's bowling unit will turn up tomorrow armed with their calculated strategies to prevent NZ's remaining batters getting the 258 runs they require, the Black Caps will bring a quiet belief founded on recent results at Basin Reserve.

Last summer they pulled off one of their most famous wins against another Test heavyweight, Ben Stokes's England, having been forced to follow-on 226 runs in arrears on the first innings before snatching a one-run victory.

And a matter of weeks later, they piled on 4(dec)-580 after being sent into bat by Sri Lanka on a typically green-tinged Basin pitch which paved the way for a thumping triumph by an innings and 58 runs.

The fact NZ's current highest successful fourth innings run chase of 230 against Australia came 50 years ago at Christchurch – a moment that will be celebrated with a reunion of the class of 1974 at Hagley Oval during next week's second Test – might suggest 369 is but a pipe dream.

But former Australia keeper-batter turned Black Caps representative now-assistant coach, Luke Ronchi, believes changes to the pitches on which Tests are played since that era - and the belief modern players now carry on to them - means nothing is beyond pursuit.

"Surfaces have changed over time," Ronchi said today.

"They don't deteriorate quite the same way they used to, so now those 180-200 chases that were so hard, now it's actually a completely different style of game.

"And I think as well, the batting mindset of players around the world now, they don't fear having to chase 300-plus totals on the last couple of days.

"That's the nature of cricket now, not just internationally but domestically so those younger guys coming into the game are a lot more confident they can chase down any total."

Qantas Tour of New Zealand

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February 29 – March 4: First Test, Wellington, 9am AEDT

March 8-12: Second Test, Christchurch, 9am AEDT

Australia Test squad: Pat Cummins (c), Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Mitchell Marsh, Michael Neser, Matthew Renshaw, Steve Smith (vc), Mitchell Starc

New Zealand Test squad: Tim Southee (c), Tom Blundell (wk), Devon Conway, Matt Henry, Scott Kuggeleijn, Tom Latham, Daryl Mitchell, Will O'Rourke, Glenn Phillips, Rachin Ravindra, Mitchell Santner, Neil Wagner, Kane Williamson, Will Young.