Close Australia 351 and 381 for 7 (M Waugh 86, Gilchrist 83*, S Waugh 67, Hayden 57) drew with New Zealand 534 for 9 dec and 256 for 9 dec
scorecard

Even when Australia draw, they win. Steve Waugh hates stalemates but he can look back on this third Test with pride after a sensational final day at the WACA, the highlight of which was an unforgettable assault from Adam Gilchrist.

Either side could have won it. New Zealand will point to bad umpiring, Australia to bad luck. At the end the Aussies were 59 runs and the Kiwis three wickets short of victory, but neither side deserved to lose this match or the series.

Australia had drawn their first series at home for eight years, and it was their first 0-0 since the dark days of the mid-1980s. But whereas that series, in India in 1986-87, would have been largely forgettable had it not included a tied Test, this one was about as exciting as a series with two rain-affected Tests could expect to be.

For much of the day, Australia appeared to be aiming merely to save the game. Mark Waugh found his form when it mattered most and only one wicket fell in the morning session - Matthew Hayden, caught by a tumbling Mathew Sinclair at slip for 57 as he pushed forward at Daniel Vettori, and when Australia lunched on 157 for 3 the game needed a kickstart.

Mark Waugh went for 86 soon after, bowled as he stepped away to attempt a horribly crooked cut at Craig McMillan's fourth ball (195 for 4). Having played so lusciously against the proper bowlers, Waugh must have felt like a man who'd been mugged by a 15-year-old scallywag.

It was also the third wicket in a row that had come in the first over of a new spell. The innovative Stephen Fleming, always chopping-and-changing his bowlers, never letting things drift, really earned his corn as captain in this series, as well as performing superbly with the bat.

Three overs later Steve Waugh, on 13, flailed at Vettori and was caught behind by Adam Parore. New Zealand were convinced they had their man - replays backed them up - but Waugh was given not out by the neutral umpire Ian Robinson. It had the feel of a decisive moment, and ultimately it was, but the Kiwis were still in business at tea when Damien Martyn (30) yorked himself as he shaped to come down the track to Vettori off the last ball before the interval (244 for 5).

Australia closed the game down after the interval, or so it seemed, as Waugh ground out what was, amazingly, his first-ever half-century in the fourth innings of a Test. Then Gilchrist changed the mood of the match with an assault so surprising as to be almost Hitchcockian.

Four successive clean hits down the ground brought him 18 off Vettori, and the next over from Chris Cairns went for 15 more, including one effortless blow over long-off. Gilchrist had moved from 22 to 54 in the space of 11 delirious deliveries. It was all gloriously out of the blue.

Australia needed 100 off 13 overs and as Fleming spread his fielders far and wide, victory was on the cards. But the tide turned again when Waugh was freakishly run-out - he was at the non-striker's end when Vettori palmed a Gilchrist club onto the stumps.

Shane Warne was caught off a Vettori no-ball, although Vettori had nobody to blame - his Tufnell-esque propensity to overstep had cost him 16 times in the match. But Warne was soon wastefully run out, at which point Australia, who had to avoid defeat to stay top in the ICC Test Championship, sent in the great stonewaller Jason Gillespie ahead of the lustier Brett Lee.

It signalled that they had given up on victory - but New Zealand hadn't, and there were still seven overs left when Gillespie gloved one down the leg side off Cairns and was wrongly given not out.

That was New Zealand's last sniff. The inimitable Gilchrist ended on 83 not out, and a series that was played in a hard-but-fair spirit throughout by all bar Brett Lee ended on a fitting note when McMillan mimicked Gillespie's infamous albatross delivery to smiles all round.

Rob Smyth is on the staff of Wisden.com.

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