Australia's Liz Watson battles with New Zealand's Katrina Rore during their Constellation Cup clash in Christchurch.Credit:Getty
The match was the first between the teams since July’s World Cup final in England where the Silver Ferns upset the Diamonds 52-51.
Diamonds coach Lisa Alexander said it was frustrating to watch her team’s lack of attention to detail in the crunch moments.
"I think we went away from some areas of our game plan that we had made a commitment to do,"Alexander said."And got a little bit sucked into the environment that was going on around us and that will be a learning[experience],particularly for the new players,that they can’t let that distract them."
The final quarter steadily worsened for Australia,who also lost goal shooter Caitlin Bassett. She left the court in discomfort and was replaced by Caitlin Thwaites. Bassett was one of Australia’s best,shooting 26/30 before leaving the game.
The four-Test series will move to Auckland on Wednesday and Alexander said her captain would be"cherry ripe"for game two.
The Diamonds found themselves down 26-25 at halftime after a poor opening half in which they were unable to capitalise on turnover ball.
Australia,who hold the Constellation Cup,were particularly wasteful in the attacking third as their connections from the mid-court to the shooting circle were rusty.