It was a merciful release for all concerned when New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming shook hands with Zimbabwe's Alistair Campbell and Stuart Carlisle to signify he had had enough and the Boxing Day Test was all over.

This was the third year in which New Zealand had played a Boxing Day match and it paled, by far, in comparison with the first, two years ago, against India and last year's against the West Indies.

Yesterday was the sort of day which doesn't endear Test cricket to its critics.

The sides paid lip service to trying to create something out of nothing by making declarations.

Zimbabwe captain Heath Streak was true to his word that he would declare behind. Normally, that might have offered some hope of a finish to remember.

This was no normal match on a normal pitch however.

Streak made life easier for New Zealand when he opted to bat on for nearly an hour this morning. That immediately reduced the amount of time New Zealand would have to bowl at Zimbabwe.

So it was no surprise that New Zealand weren't prepared to offer Zimbabwe an early New Year present and they were invited to attempt to score 300 runs in 43 overs. It was never a realistic prospect.

In reality the match did not deserve a rousing finish.

For a starter, it did not have a pitch good enough to offer a chance of victory to either side.

One side would have had to play very badly to lose on the pitch and neither side was sufficiently better than the other to entertain thoughts of a victory.

So the banter about declarations and being positive was just that, banter.

Heath Streak, the Zimbabwe captain said he had thought about declaring overnight one run after the follow on was saved.

"We thought with 10 wickets in hand they had the opportunity to be a little bit more aggressive and set us a realistic total that could have allowed them to get wickets.

"The wicket was a little bit flat. But if they had set us something from which there was a chance of victory, we could have gone for it and given them the opportunity to get 10 wickets.

"The opposition's view of what was a reasonable total on there was obviously different to our view," he said.

Fleming said he was more frustrated yesterday when New Zealand couldn't push the game forward more in its favour.

"We saw the possibility of a good day's play had they pulled out [overnight].

"For both parties the way we look at it, the shorter the game the more of a lottery it becomes.

"But if you have a reasonable total over a long period, say 85 overs chasing around 300, then I class that a good day's cricket on that type of wicket. As soon as the game becomes shorter, they obviously wanted the best of both worlds, a shorter chase in a shorter amount of time.

"We tried to push the game forward as far as we could bar the first day when we were cautious.

"We didn't see the point in giving them a sniff, hence the declaration was a token declaration because we still wanted to push the point home that we were willing to get out there but certainly [there was] frustration at probably our inability moreso than their tactics, to push the game to a result," he said.

Both felt they had some benefits in the game.

There were some milestones on the day. New Zealand bowler Chris Martin achieved his first five-wicket bag in Tests when having Douglas Marillier caught behind.

Zimbabwe's Trevor Madondo scored a half century, and went on to be 74 not out at the declaration.

Then in New Zealand's second innings Fleming hit an attacking 55 before being run out while Nathan Astle was 51 not out when New Zealand declared.

Streak was delighted that younger batsmen Gavin Rennie and Madondo did so well.

"We've been struggling with our opening partnerships and he [Rennie] came through for us and got a 90. He should have gone on and got his hundred. It's nice to see some of the young guys doing the bulk of the scoring for a change," he said.

The Test did help New Zealand get back some confidence after their man-handling in South Africa.

"We achieved some good things in this Test," Fleming said.

"Confidence is a big thing. We got hammered around a little in South Africa. One day cricket is all about confidence and that is shown in our best one-day player Roger Twose," he said as he looked ahead from the Test to the National Bank Cup One-Day series which starts in Taupo on Tuesday.

© CricInfo