AUSTRALIA SURVIVES IN EXTRAORDINARY TEST OF METTLE
By the time the last ball was bowled in this Third Test between Australia and New Zealand, the scoreboard at the
WACA Ground in Perth was indicating a draw. But it revealed only an infinitesimal part of the story.
After four days of brilliant, pulsating cricket, this was a fifth and final day to rate with some of the more unthinkable and
incredible in Test history.
There was undeviating defiance from Mark Waugh (86), Steve Waugh (67) and Matthew Hayden (57) as New Zealand
initially struggled to adapt to the task of snaring eight Australian wickets from a total of 93 gripping overs.
And an extraordinary late blitzkrieg from Adam Gilchrist (83*) as he clouted 32 runs from nine deliveries at one stage to
improbably accept the challenge of carrying Australia toward a victory target of 440. An Australian win which would, no less, have
rendered the innings the most productive among all successful fourth innings Test run chases.
Only a pair of run outs at the other end, one of them involving a freakish Daniel Vettori deflection of a straight drive into
the stumps of the home team's captain, foiled the brilliant wicketkeeper-batsman's plans.
Yet a plucky Black Caps outfit was never far from snatching the Trans-Tasman Trophy from Australia's clutches either,
bravely keeping its ambitions of victory burning until the very last over of the match by continuing to collect wickets at
crucial times and limiting the score to 7/381.
In the end, the effect of two controversial rulings from Zimbabwean umpire Ian Robinson on caught behind decisions
against Steve Waugh and Jason Gillespie (1*) was inestimable. Waugh was on just 13, and the total at 4/203, when he
moved back, tried to drive off the back foot at Vettori (2/142), and appeared to top edge a catch to wicketkeeper Adam
Parore.
The Black Caps also seemed justifiably convinced of the merits of their shout against Gillespie. The number nine
batsman hadn't scored, and the match was still six overs from its conclusion, when he was adjudged not to have
brushed a Chris Cairns (1/72) delivery with his gloves down the leg side.
The ever-threatening Vettori had already made two crucial inroads by that time, luring Hayden to guide a catch to slip
shortly before lunch and beating a drive from Damien Martyn (30) in the shadows of tea. There had been an important
contribution from part-time medium pacer Craig McMillan (1/15) too when just his fourth delivery of the match seamed
sharply back in to Mark Waugh, mowing down his stumps as he backed away to cut.
As each of those wickets tumbled, acquisition of the Trans-Tasman Trophy and the ending of Australia's reign as the
official world Test champion still seemed far from impossible. In practice, though, the difficulty of the task was always
about akin to the prospect of snowboarding with safety down the length of Mount Cook.
Accordingly, joy probably would have known few bounds for the New Zealand players if a first victory on Australian soil
in 16 years had been snared.
And it still remained a fascinating end to a series that continued to defy almost all expectations in any case.
Even around the near-serial interference of poor weather - there were even two brief showers again today - both teams
continued to play their cricket with flair and an imaginative and attacking ethos that reflected great credit on the
combatants.
Today's finish itself - particularly when set within the context of a series that somehow ended at 0-0 - must also rate
somewhere among the very finest in Test cricket. As a former Prime Minister of the home country was once prone to
say, this is about as good as it gets. ::Tea - Day 5::Australia 2nd innings::Black Caps' victory aspirations still flickering at the WACA
New Zealand's aspirations of victory over Australia continue to bubble away, but the odds on a draw have increased nonetheless, after another fascinating session of play on the fifth and final day of the Third Test at the WACA Ground in Perth. At tea, the resolute Australians are positioned at a score of 5/244 as they attempt to thwart the tourists' best-laid plans of claiming a 1-0 win in the series.
The Black Caps' cause appeared to be faltering badly as brothers Mark Waugh (86) and Steve Waugh (28*) stretched their partnership for the fourth wicket deep into the first hour after lunch.
And it was also derailed by a moment of controversy just before the drinks break, when umpire Ian Robinson ruled that the Australian captain, on 13 at the time and with the total at 4/203, had not top edged as he moved back and tried to drive off the back foot at Daniel Vettori (2/78). The bowler, and all of the fieldsmen around the bat, had been utterly convinced of the merits of their beseeching appeal but the most important figure in the middle remained unswayed.
Not all has been grim news for the Kiwis, though. For they not only seized the prized wicket of Mark Waugh with a lovely piece of deception from part-time medium pacer Craig McMillan (1/15) but were also able to breathe a deep sigh of relief as a threatening shower hit the ground for only a short period before dispersing.
And then came a big revival in their fortunes on the very stroke of tea as Vettori brilliantly put a ball through the defences of Damien Martyn (30) to send him trudging back in the direction of the pavilion with Black Caps' players delightedly wrapping themselves around their star bowler behind him.
Waugh's exit had been necessitated when McMillan cut a delivery fiercely back in off the pitch at him. The right hander's instinctive reaction was to back away to the leg side and to attempt to cut, but he was surprised by the movement, played the ball off little more than a feathered bottom edge as he tried to adjust the stroke, and proceeded to look back in dismay as his stumps were mown down.
It was only McMillan's fourth delivery of the match, and it followed a frustrating period for the Kiwis upon the resumption.
Captain Stephen Fleming and paceman Chris Cairns (1/31) had begun the session with an attempt to unsettle Mark Waugh, and even to plant a few seeds of doubt in his mind, by packing the point and cover regions with fieldsmen and bowling short of a length outside the line of off stump.
And left arm spinner Vettori also opted upon a slightly unusual tactic by deciding to come over the wicket and consistently flight the ball - albeit in some tantalisingly rough patches on the pitch - outside the line of the two right handers' leg stumps.
Twice, the Cairns strategy nearly brought the ultimate reward as Waugh drove in the air marginally behind point. And there was also more than one example of the same batsman playing and missing with back foot drives outside the line of off. But both batsmen were otherwise happy against Cairns' line, and content to pad most of Vettori's offerings away, and duly few other chances arrived until McMillan's introduction.
Fleming also chose an unfamiliar method of trying to ruffle number six batsman, Martyn, by bowling McMillan and fellow part-timer Nathan Astle (0/10) to him for half an hour upon his arrival at the crease. But that plan also failed to produce a quick wicket.
There was another close shave, this time in the form of an appeal for lbw, for Waugh against Vettori on 26. It wasn't until Martyn yorked himself as he came slightly forward to drive at Vettori that the additional wicket they so desperately needed before tea tumbled for the visitors.