Australian captain Ricky Ponting had a strong feeling his side had not posted enough runs after the first innings in their One Day International loss to New Zealand at McLean Park in Napier.
On a small field and a very flat pitch, New Zealand restricted the visiting side to 275-8 in its innings after some excellent spells of bowling that kept the Australian batsmen under control.
New Zealand then went on to notch a two wicket victory after a superb knock by Scott Styris (49) in the third power play carried his side home.
Michael Hussey top-scored for Australia with 59 runs but was only really backed up by Ponting (44) and Shane Watson (45) who were the only other batsmen to get past 40.
Ponting said there were not enough good scores to ever reach a reasonable total and things will have to change before the second game of the series at Eden Park in Auckland on Saturday.
"I said to the boys at the halfway point that we're probably a few runs short with the ground being as small and fast as it was and the wicket being very true," he said.
"We had too many batter make 30 or 40 and not make a big score and when you do that you never make a big score in one day cricket, and we're very aware of that.
"They got off to a good start with the bat and we were a bit behind the eight ball for a while but we fought our way back. The power play at the end was just enough to get them over the line.
"I'm disappointed with the loss and I think we've got some work to do."
Ponting has played enough games in New Zealand to know what has to be done to win and advised his team the day before the match of what he expected.
"I spoke to the guys yesterday that when you play in New Zealand on these small grounds and good wickets you've never won the game and you're never out of the game," he said.
"I think today we probably just relaxed a bit too much and it's just not good enough, we need to be better than that."
Although Styris and Ross Taylor (70) both reached reasonable scores for New Zealand, it was the effective bowling in the middle of the first innings that really handed it the win said Ponting.
"I thought they adjusted and bowled really well," he said.
"We found it hard to score through the middle overs when the ball got a bit softer.
"I also thought they fielded really well today with their diving saves in the ring, if they had missed half a dozen of them it would have been a different game so full credit to the way New Zealand played."