Daniel Vettori says his inexperienced Black Caps line-up must improve dramatically in all facets of the game if they hope to be competitive in the first 3 Mobile Test against Australia beginning at the Gabba on Thursday.
The tourists slumped to a six-wicket defeat at the hands of a youthful NSW outfit missing seven of its Test stars late on the final day of their tour opener at the SCG.
And while the skipper cited opener Jamie How's blistering innings of 170 on day-one a major positive to come out of the loss, he called on the rest of the batting line-up to answer the call against Ricky Ponting's men to avoid further embarrassment.
"The batting side of (the game) has plagued us for a long time and to only put 250 on the board in both innings - and we were in trouble both innings as well - makes it tough to recover from that," he said.
"I was relatively happy with the bowling, a bit disappointed with (the efforts) in the field dropping (several) catches."
"We know to compete with Australia we've got to put at least 350 on the board in the first innings and take our chances from there and if we've got any chance in Brisbane that's what we have to do."
Asked if his side is capable of making the necessary improvements in time to challenge the Australians in Brisbane, the 85-Test veteran was less than convincing conceding 'it's hard to say'."
"We know there's guys in the team who'll be feeling confident about their own performance and there'll be other guys who are a little bit down."
"These next three days are about trying to adapt to what is going to be a completely different wicket and hopefully confidence comes from there."
Delighted Blues skipper Dominic Thornely played down the effect the defeat would have on the Black Caps predicting Vettori's men would prove very competitive throughout the two-Test series.
"I don't think it would have dented them at all to be honest," he said.
"What I saw there was a New Zealand team going about their business and what they wanted to do and I don't think result-wise it's going to have too much of an impact."
"They certainly had a few game plans that they stuck to, Jamie How played a magnificent innings in the first innings so he's got good form and I thought all their bowlers bowled quite well throughout the whole match."