Vettori: Batsmen must be given time

Jesse Ryder is one of a crop of New Zealand batsmen yet to register a Test century

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Daniel Vettori stressed that it will take time for New Zealand’s inexperienced batting line-up to fully blossom after his side slipped 149-run defeat by Australia in the opening Test of the Trans-Tasman series at the Gabba.

Bold knocks from Michael Clarke (98 in the first innings) and Simon Katich (an unbeaten 131 in the second) propped up the home side's modest totals of 214 and 268.

Vettori believed this highlighted an underlying trend about the relative strengths of the Black Caps’ bowling compared to their batting.

Aaron Redmond, Jesse Ryder, Daniel Flynn, and Grant Elliott have played a combined total of 18 Tests are all yet to register a century, but Vettori was hopeful that his batsmen would prosper if given time at the highest level.

"I still look at the (batsmen) and think they're extremely talented,” Vettori said.

“But we've got to turn that talent into a consistent performance and unfortunately we're just not quite getting that.

"I do have a lot of faith in them, I see the talent in them and I think they're very good players, so I'll back them and we can keep improving, we've just got to accelerate that improvement.

Vettori believes the problem is highlighted by the gap in Test hundreds between Martin Crowe, the man widely considered to be New Zealand’s greatest modern batsman, and the rest.

"It's been a problem well before I was captain, a lot of guys have looked through it and tried to find ways of redeeming it.

"If you look at this history of our batting, there's only ever been a few guys average over 40, so it's not something that we're accustomed to, but we're striving for it.

"We've always produced quality bowlers, but we've had Martin Crowe, who averages 45 with 17 Test hundreds, and then there's a pretty big gap between him and everyone else."

"We've got a raw group of guys who are learning their trade, they're going to very good players, but we've just got to get that time in to them,” he said.

"Once they've hopefully played those 20 Test matches in those positions, (they) can average 40, can be very good players.

“But at the moment we're trying to work with some real young, inexperienced guys."

Martin Crowe's 17 Test tons are 12 ahead of the closest current player, Jacob Oram

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Australia captain Ricky Ponting was happy to claim his first Test win in over five months today, but called on his own batsmen to lift their game.

The Australians were on top for the duration of the first Test at the Gabba, but had a number of shaky sessions with the willow.

Ponting suggested his side would not be getting carried away with the win.

"I think we were a fair way off playing our best cricket, both teams struggled with the bat on that wicket.

"(But) after halfway through the second day, it probably wasn't a bad surface to bat on at all.

"I thought we bowled very well, we fielded well, but our batting wasn't great."

Ponting was confident his side would improve ahead of the second and final Test against the Black Caps in Adelaide on Friday.

"We've done what we needed to do, we had a number of outstanding individual performances in the game, but at the moment we're just lacking that real consistency through the group that we need to play our best cricket," he said.

"We head to Adelaide, probably on a better batting surface, hopefully the guys who got starts here can go on and get bigger scores."

Ponting was impressed with the efforts of man-of-the-match Mitchell Johnson, suggesting the 'sky is the limit' for the 27-year-old after he claimed his maiden five-wicket haul in the second innings.

"The thing I like about him is that he's continually working on things," Ponting said.

"He's done as well as any of our bowlers over the last 12 or 18 months, but he's the first one to go and have a look at video footage and work on things.

“He's always trying to find ways to improve.

"He's doing everything right at the moment, we've always known he is a very attacking type of bowler that at different times can probably go for a few boundaries, but a lot of the time probably looks most like getting wickets."