The 159-run capitulation to a rampant Black Caps outfit on Wednesday may have come in the 50-over arena but it inspired little confidence for success in the upcoming Test series.
The heavy loss has put the one-day world champion's run of seven consecutive series victories in grave danger and again shone the spotlight on Australia's weakness against the swinging ball.
The shellshocked Australians, who crumbled inside 25 overs before the lights had taken full effect, have just two days to work on their flaws before the second match in Wellington and little more than a week until the first Test. 
The flat tracks of home must now seem a world away for Australia's batsmen, whose torrent of runs slowed to a trickle against a red-hot Kiwi pace attack.
Just as they did when they visited the same venue in the World Cup, Australia folded with the bat, dismissed for a paltry 148 after collapsing to 6-41 in nine dramatic overs.
It would have been far worse if not for the 79-run stand between Matthew Wade and James Faulkner - an Australian record for the seventh wicket against New Zealand. Neither is in the Test squad.
The alarming speed at which the visitors' batsmen unravelled must have brought an uneasy sense of deja vu to any Australian fan with the debacle at Trent Bridge still at the forefront of their mind.
Whereas that disintegration occurred on a treacherous deck the wicket at Eden Park was hardly a batsman's graveyard. It had earlier played true enough for the Kiwis to amass 307.
There had been a suspicion all summer that Australia's new-look batting line-up had been shielded by a combination of benign tracks and poor opposition. This performance will do little to dispel those doubts.
Worryingly for Australia, the XI in Auckland contained three of the likely top six for the first Test, including senior pair Smith and David Warner.
Joe Burns and Adam Voges would have been well served had they avoided their TV sets, while Usman Khawaja can consider this a bullet dodged.
Worse still, the Black Caps were without gun paceman Tim Southee, who is on track to return for the Trans Tasman series.
There will also be concerns at why Australia's bowlers were unable to extract the same movement through the air as Trent Boult and Matt Henry.
Smith has stressed to his players the need to respect the new ball in New Zealand conditions but it appears his words have fallen on deaf ears. He too was guilty of playing too hard at the ball.
The sight of Shaun Marsh nicking off on five will come as no surprise to followers of his career though it had been hoped he had turned the corner this summer. The jury remains out.
Warner can consider himself unlucky to be fired out leg before wicket, though he erred in not sending the decision upstairs as he would have been reprieved.
There was no revival from the middle order either with George Bailey, Glenn Maxwell and Mitchell Marsh all going cheaply to a combination of poor shot selection (Bailey), a freakish catch (Maxwell) and questionable technique (Marsh).
For the Kiwis, Brendon McCullum smashed his way to 44, including a thunderous run of six, four, four, six against Hazlewood, and Martin Guptill spanked 90 off 76 balls.


SCOREBOARD
NEW ZEALAND      R B
M Guptill run out (Maxwell)    90 76
B McCullum b Faulkner     44 29
K Williamson c S Marsh b Hazlewood  0 8
H Nicholls c Wade b M Marsh   61 67
G Elliott c Hastings b M Marsh   21 18
C Anderson c Richardson b Hastings  10 20
L Ronchi b Hazlewood     16 26
M Santner not out     35 39
A Milne c & b Faulkner     14 10
M Henry not out      5 7
Sundries (1b 3lb 7w)    11
TOTAL: (For eight wickets)    307
FALL: 79 (McCullum), 81 (Williamson), 181 (Guptill), 205 (Elliott), 231 (Nicholls), 234 (Anderson), 263 (Ronchi), 290 (Milne).
BOWLING: J Hazlewood 10-1-68-2 (1w), K Richardson 10-1-64-0, J Hastings 10-0-39-1, J Faulkner 10-0-67-2, G Maxwell 3-0-30-0 (2w/6), M Marsh 7-0-35-2.
BATTING TIME: 216 mins. OVERS: 50.
AUSTRALIA      R B
S Marsh c Guptill b Henry    5 8
D Warner lbw Boult     12 11
S Smith b Henry      18 17
G Bailey c Anderson b Henry    2 10
G Maxwell c Williamson b Boult   0 3
M Marsh c McCullum b Boult    0 4
M Wade c Nicholls b Anderson   37 38
J Faulkner b Milne     36 33
J Hastings c Guptill b Santner   8 9
K Richardson c Williamson b Santner  19 13
J Hazlewood not out     0 0
Sundries (2lb, 9w)    11
TOTAL:       148
FALL: 10 (S Marsh), 33 (Smith), 39 (Warner), 40 (Bailey), 40 (Maxwell), 41 (M Marsh), 120 (Wade), 121 (Faulkner), 148 (Richardson), 148 (Hastings). BOWLING: T Boult 7-0-38-3, M Henry 6-0-41-3 (3w), A Milne 6-0-46-1 (3w), C Anderson 4-1-14-1 (3w), G Elliott 1-0-7-0, M Santner 0.2-0-0-2. BATTING TIME: 115 mins. OVERS: 24.2.
RESULT: New Zealand won by 159 runs.
MAN OF THE MATCH: Martin Guptill