A farcical trans-Tasman ODI washout has left both cricket sides seething over the unsafe state of the sodden field in Napier.
New Zealand Cricket has launched an independent investigation into McLean Park's drainage problems.
Blackcaps coach Mike Hesson was "annoyed and frustrated", while Australia's stand-in skipper Aaron Finch was just as furious about the series of events that denied his team a chance to square the three-match series.
"We don't have footy boots on," Finch said, when asked why the field was unsafe.
"It's very easy for your feet to slip out from underneath you ... and with standing water there, if someone's diving, they're just going to dig into the outfield.
"I haven't seen it (a cricket field drain) that slow before."
Thursday's match was listed to start at noon (AEDT) but that was when the covers, anchored at McLean Park throughout a dreary morning of drizzle, came off for the first time.
Some five inspections of the wet field - and not a single drop of rain - followed before umpires Kumar Dharmasena and Chris Brown eventually called the game off after having a final look at 4:30pm.
Australia will regroup and aim to draw the series on Sunday in the Hamilton finale. The Blackcaps won the first game in Auckland despite a magnificent undefeated 146 from Marcus Stoinis.
The venue's drainage has been an issue in the past. ODIs in 2013 and 2016 were abandoned without a ball bowled.
"The ground was not even close to being fit for play, which was incredibly frustrating for everybody," Hesson said.
"One of those aspects is player safety but you also need to be able to play a game of cricket.
"It's pretty clear there's an issue .. we were training on Nelson Park 100m away and the ground was bone dry four hours ago."
"They need to have that review."
Finch, serving as captain in the absence of Steve Smith, David Warner and Matthew Wade, noted it was "quite a frustrating day".
"You're standing around trying to get back into a series ... there were parts of the ground where you'd hit the ball and water would just go everywhere," he said.
"When we turned up, it was obviously a bit soggy and a bit wet, but I thought we'd get a game in."
Dharmasena and Brown inspected the pitch and field twice before agreeing on a start time, but opposing captains Finch and Kane Williamson spoke with the umpires some five minutes before the coin was due to be tossed.
Finch and Williamson declared the field wasn't fit for play. Water came to the surface when both teams were warming up.
"That was an ultra-aggressive start time ... it was pretty clear that there was quite a few soggy and damp patches that were a bit unsafe," Finch said.
"They were in really key spots: backward point, cover, square leg."
Curator Phil Stoyanoff, Dharmasena, Brown, Finch and Williamson shared a lengthy, and at-times animated, discussion during the fourth inspection.
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