10 Nov 2015

McCullum backs his batters

5:18 pm on 10 November 2015

The Black Caps captain Brendon McCullum refuses to accept his batsmen can't cope with Australia's bowling attack despite their 208 run loss in Brisbane today.

Brendon McCullum and Ross Taylor

The Black Caps' Brendon McCullum and Ross Taylor leave the field for tea time on day four of the match. Photo: Photosport

The Black Caps were dismissed for 295 in their second innings with only McCullum who made 80 and Kane Williamson who made 59 scoring half centuries.

Asked if the Black Caps could handle the express pace of left armers Mitchell Starc and Mitchell Johnson McCullum believes there were indications they could.

"Kane Williamson, probably the best 100 I've ever seen from a New Zealander in the time that I've been playing, just full of class and just once again shows how good of a player he is and that he can score runs in any conditions and against any attack all around the world so he's a huge positive out of this test match.

"I thought the openers were good as well, they looked poised and controlled and defensively very sound and I'm sure they'll take a lot out of this as well," McCullum said.

Skipper Brendon McCullum top-scored with 80 but was controversially given 'out' with a catch off his front pad.

However, McCullum was unable to refer the decision to the television match official as New Zealand had already used both their reviews.

It didn't play on the captain's mind though, who applauded the efforts of English umpires Nigel Llong and Richard Illingworth.

"They're allowed to make the occasional mistake and that's the game that we play.

"We had a couple of reviews, we took those opportunities and we weren't able to obviously use one later on but again that's not the winning or the losing of the game, we lost by 200 runs and Australia deserved their victory."

A dejected Kane Williamson walks off after being bowled by Nathan Lyon lbw on Day Four, 8 November 2015.

A dejected Kane Williamson walks off after being given out LBW by Nathan Lyon on day four. Photo: PHOTOSPORT

McCullum told Channel Nine his side was on the back foot from ball one of the test.

"We weren't quite able to hit our lengths on that first day but a lot of that came down to the pressure that was applied by David Warner in particular and from there we were always chasing the game but I think Australia certainly deserve this test match.

"There's a few positives for us as well we've got to take out and now we've got a quick turnaround to Perth and I'm sure we'll bounce back at Perth," McCullum said.

Ross Taylor's was the first wicket to fall on Monday, caught by Steve Smith off the bowling of Josh Hazlewood.

Jimmy Neesham, who will miss the rest of the series with a back injury, made just three, while BJ Watling made 14 runs off 31 balls.

Doug Bracewell went first ball.

Mark Craig and Trent Boult combined for a quickfire 46 runs for the 10th wicket, with Boult the last batsman out for 15, leaving Craig on 26 not out.

The win gives Australia a one nil lead in the best of three series with the second test starting in Perth on Friday.

Meanwhile Mitchell Starc has been fined by the International Cricket Council for breaching the code of conduct.

Starc was fined 50 per cent of his match fee for throwing the cricket ball "in a dangerous manner" at the New Zealand batsman, Mark Craig, during his side's win.

Match scoreboard:

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