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New Zealand allrounder Scott Styris played down his heated clash with Mitchell Johnson as he basked in the glory of his matchwinning innings against Australia.
Styris' unbeaten 49 off 34 balls led New Zealand home by two wickets with four balls to spare as they chased down 276 in the Chappell-Hadlee Trophy opener.
"I'd have to say it rates pretty highly, because any time you can be the guy at the end and win a game you've obviously got to be happy," he said.
"When you couple that with the fact that it's Australia, the No 1 team in the world, it's even better.
"Dan (Vettori) has said this series will define how New Zealand's gone this summer, so to get the guys up and hopefully win this series is a great feeling."
As Styris spoke, umpires Rudi Koertzen and Tony Hill were meeting with match referee Ranjan Madugalle to decide whether a code of conduct hearing would be required.
Styris and Johnson bumped shoulders then appeared to clash heads during a heated confrontation after 34-year-old Styris hit the Australian paceman for consecutive boundaries in the 46th over.
Said Styris: "There was nothing more than normal, the Australians play good competitive cricket and I'd like to think that we'll match them in that competitiveness. There wasn't anything untoward out there.
Asked if Johnson had butted heads with Styris, he said: "He might have come quite close, I don't know, he may have done."
Styris, playing his 160th ODI after being unwanted for the Bangladesh series, was initially omitted and only found out he was in the playing 11 an hour before the start, when Vettori withdrew with a neck injury.
Man of the match Ross Taylor (70 off 71 balls) said it could hardly have gone better in his captaincy debut.
"I'm retiring now," he quipped.
"I got a text from Dan about 10.45am saying 'I'm a bit iffy, you might be captain', so I started getting ready then but I still thought he would be okay. I didn't really know the extent his neck was playing up. I'm pretty happy with the result."
Meanwhile Australian captain Ricky Ponting said he was disappointed his team were 30-40 runs short in their innings, and was unsure what led to the Styris-Johnson clash.
"There was obviously something happened," Ponting said.
"I rushed in as quickly as I could and separated them as quick as I could and we just tried to finish off the game well from there."
