3rd Orange Test: Australia v New Zealand at Perth, 30 Nov

3rd Orange Test: Australia v New Zealand at Perth, 30 Nov - 4 Dec 2001
John Polack

Australia 2nd innings: Lunch - Day 5, Match drawn,
Live Reports from previous days

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.

BATTLE STATIONS RESUMED AS HISTORY BECKONS

History beckons for either Australia or New Zealand on the fifth and final day of this rip-roaring Third Test between the countries at the WACA Ground in Perth.

But, after an impressive first two hours from an under-pressure Australia, there's no clearer idea of which team is closer to creating it.

At lunch, the Australians are at 3/157 in their second innings - needing either to score a further 283 runs from a minimum 61 overs to secure an improbable win, or to guard against the loss of any more than six wickets in that time to avert the possibility of series defeat.

The match resumed with Australia, at 2/69, still requiring an unlikely 371 runs from 90 overs today in order to successfully hunt down a mammoth fourth innings victory target of 440. A target, if obtained, that would give the Australians an exalted place in cricket by making theirs easily the most productive among all successful fourth innings chases in Test history.

Yet, as difficult as the task appeared on paper, Mark Waugh (60*) and Matthew Hayden (57) showed few signs that the prospect was in any way about to overwhelm them as they combined to add 61 runs in a largely unflustered display through the first 85 minutes. With the pitch continuing to possess very few terrors, and the outfield continuing to carry shots toward the boundaries at lightning pace, the play of both was assured.

Waugh's horizontal bat shots were spectacular, while it was driving back down the ground from the muscularly authoritative Hayden which loomed largest among his collection of strokes.

When Daniel Vettori (1/40) finally lured Hayden into meekly guiding a flighted delivery into the hands of slip fieldsman Mathew Sinclair from the front foot, it came against the run of play.

There were signs, too, that the weight of expectation after four days of excellent cricket might be beginning to burden the New Zealanders.

Chris Martin (0/37) opened the day with an over in which he erred badly on the short side, permitting Waugh the chance to crack dual boundaries with power through the off side. And the fault was not rectified speedily - deliveries bowled short of a length arriving with monotonous regularity as the day's early salvos were fired.

The fielding was not at its sharpest either, with misfields and wayward throws allowing the Australians more runs than should have been on offer. Waugh, on 29, was even in genuine danger of losing his wicket at one stage when he ran a scampering single to the striker's end as Hayden turned a delivery to Lou Vincent at square leg. But Vincent's throw was high and to the left of wicketkeeper Adam Parore.

It represented a golden opportunity lost. Especially as the only other real hint of Waugh brushing with death came when, on 31, he survived a loud caught behind appeal from bowler Vettori and wicketkeeper Parore after he was beaten by an excellent delivery that spun marginally away outside the line of off stump.

It was only when Hayden was removed, bringing Waugh together with brother and Australian captain Steve Waugh (3*) in a tension-laden battle in the lead-up to lunch, that the Black Caps were genuinely able to slow his run scoring.

To add to the potential perversity of the day's events, banks of dark cloud have been rolling gradually in from the west, creating the possibility that rain may hit the ground at some point late in the day.