Is Australia about to pay a price for taking its eye off its cricketing little brother across the Tasman?

Australia hasn’t played a completed one-day international against neighbour New Zealand since the last World Cup in 2011.

The only time the two 2015 World Cup co-hosts and tournament heavyweights have met in an ODI since then was a rained out no-result at the Champions Trophy two years ago.

The fiercely contested annual Chappell-Hadlee Trophy trans-Tasman ODI series was played seven times from 2004-05, but has lapsed since as commitments to England and India and the rise of the IPL weighed on the calendar.

In the meantime, the Black Caps have developed a formidable ODI side spearheaded by big-hitting skipper Brendon McCullum and swing bowler Tim Southee.

Unbeaten after three World Cup matches, they are set to pose a huge threat to No.1-ranked Australia when they meet before a fiercely partisan crowd at Auckland’s Eden Park on Saturday – a match that could go a long way to deciding the top team in Pool A.

So distant has the on-field relationship been that Australian opener Aaron Finch’s only experience of facing the Black Caps was in a warm-up fixture before last year’s World Twenty20 tournament in Bangladesh.

He has also never played on Eden Park.

Finch indicated the Australians were keenly aware of the threat posed by New Zealand.

“Their bowling at the top of the innings has been outstanding with Tim Southee and Trent Boult and guys chipping in,” Finch said.

“Myself and Davy Warner are going to have to play as well as we can to negate that.”

However, Finch also expected little in the way of surprise despite the dearth of trans-Tasman clashes in recent times.

“You do see a lot of cricket and you have access to probably too much footage sometimes – it can wear you down a little bit,” he said.

“There’s probably not going to be any surprises from either team.

“There’s no real mystery spinner from either side to worry about.

“The Kiwis swing the ball right at the start, left and right arm, so we just have to play it on merit.”

Finch also dismissed rustiness as being an issue for Australia even though they will go in with one World Cup match under their belts a fortnight earlier after last Saturday’s clash with Bangladesh was rained out.

In contrast, the Kiwis have played three matches for a 3-0 record that includes big wins over Sri Lanka and England.

“We’ve been training well during the week and had a pretty solid session on Saturday when we were meant to play,” said Finch.

“We’re feeling good and ready to go.”