Ponting tries to unsettle Black Caps

Australia lead the series 1-0 after the second match in Sydney was washed out after only six overs were bowled, meaning the Black Caps would retain the trophy if they win the final game in Tasmania.

"I think the game being washed out when it was probably created less worries for New Zealand than it might have done had it continued," said Ponting, who feels New Zealand are lucky to still be in the series after they slumped to 30 for three before the heavens opened.

He added: "(Shaun) Tait hadn't bowled yet and if we had taken one more breakthrough we probably, touch wood, would have been good enough to knock them over for something pretty low."

Ponting also went on to plant a seed of doubt in the New Zealand top order, claiming that their failures will still be in their minds when they go out to bat on Thursday.

"When you get knocked over early you want to make sure that it doesn't happen again," he added.

New Zealand captain Daniel Vettori steered clear of taking shots at the Aussies, preferring to instead focus on his side's strong batting performance in the series opener in Adelaide.

"To put all the badness on just the one performance would be a bit tough," said Vettori.

"Brendon McCullum's played pretty well for a while now so he won't be feeling any after effects of that (failure in Sydney). I'd be surprised if they weren't feeling confident.

"As I said before it's a one-off game. You can put everything aside and just worry about this performance."