Australian Diamonds captain Laura Geitz has warned her team they need to lift their intensity if they want to retain the Constellation Cup in Saturday's decider against New Zealand in Sydney.
The Australians lead the series 2-0 after a 49-40 win in the second Test in Melbourne on Wednesday night.
But Geitz labelled the match a "kick up the bum" for the world No.1 team.
Australia has won its last seven Tests against the world's second best team and has racked up 15 consecutive Test wins against all opposition.
They defeated the Kiwis by 18 goals in the gold medal match at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games and started this series with a comprehensive victory.
Geitz is desperate for her team to avoid any form of complacency.
Before the match she urged her team to "just beware of the wounded bull."
The Australians had led by 10 goals late in the third quarter.
With Julie Corletto springing attacks from defence and Madi Robinson dominating the midcourt to allow Caitlin Bassett to shot 33 goals from 40 attempts, another large victory looked on the cards.
But the Silver Ferns fought back hard and narrowed the gap to just two goals with 11 minutes left in the match.
Geitz had always expected a tough tussle and said the second half scare would motivate her team.
"I thought tonight would be a much closer game and we probably needed a good kick up the bum too," she said.
"That is definitely in our favour, they have shown they are within our reach and that puts us in a good place going into Sydney.
"We are obviously happy with the win, but just credit to the Silver Ferns ... they are such a world class side."
Diamonds coach Lisa Alexander said they would work to eliminate their errors before the next Test.
"We did win, we have to remember that and the Silver Ferns lost the game," she said.
"While you can say they would feel good about the fact they did get close to us, I still thought we didn't play as well as we did in Invercargill, that is something for us to work on. "We have got improvement to come."
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