'We can't afford to panic' - Hussey

Michael Hussey, the stand-in captain, says Australia can't afford to panic despite their horror loss to New Zealand at Eden Park and their fifth defeat in six games. Australia started their three-match tour expecting to polish ahead of the World Cup, but the trip has turned into a nightmare after they failed to defend a total of 336 on Sunday.

After stepping in for Ricky Ponting, Hussey has become the first Australia captain to lose a one-day series to New Zealand after the Chappell-Hadlee Trophy was handed over to Stephen Fleming with Tuesday's contest still to play. Despite top scoring in both games, including 105 off 84 balls in Auckland, Hussey has been unable to secure a win.

"You don't want to be losing, there's no question about that," Hussey told the Courier-Mail. "We've got to keep trusting what we're about. We can't afford to panic. We can't afford to start making wholesale changes or anything like that."

Hussey said Australia needed to improve their record of having big totals chased down. "I still think we've got the right people in the team and in the squad," he said. Three times in the past year Australia have lost games after scoring more than 300.

Hussey told the Daily Telegraph Australia had to prepare even more than they were already doing. "We need to plan down to every batsman and match up who are the best bowling options to them," he said in the paper.

"We need to work out who Ross Taylor struggles against and maybe get match-ups going that way. We need to take the preparation another step further and find out which of their batsmen don't like facing our bowlers."