Pace spearhead Glenn McGrath has welcomed the return of the "ugly Aussies" in cricket while defending his bowling tactics during the dying stages of the first Test thriller against New Zealand.

McGrath said the Australians were glad to be back in a Test match scrap after becoming cricket's most efficient killers during the last two years, ending some contests inside three days.

But they were taken within a few blows of defeat yesterday by a New Zealand team which had to be allowed back into the fight after rain forced captains Steve Waugh and Stephen Fleming to make bold declarations on the final day.

It almost backfired on Waugh when the Kiwis moved within 21 runs of victory with 18 balls left at the Gabba, but McGrath shut them down to secure a tense draw. He flirted with danger and criticism by bowling well wide of off-stump, sometimes within centimetres of legal width, but he wasn't apologising today.

"(Former wicketkeeper Ian Healy) came into the room after play and said it was good to see the ugly Aussies back in that you have to work really hard and look bad to save the game," McGrath said.

"It's good you have to work for one for a change. It got to the stage where they were well in charge of a game and we had to fight.

"Fair enough, we bowled a bit negatively but we had to do that to tie them down. They had to play the shots so if we bowled in one area they could only score in one area.

"It took me until the last couple of overs before I finally found one point outside off-stump where I wanted to bowl. Before that it was a bit all over the shop."

Fleming refused to criticise McGrath's tactics, which was appropriate given that the Kiwis were headed for a loss until the Brisbane rain intervened.

Waugh voided Australia's unbeatable position by declaring his second innings at 2-84, engineering a finish that almost went the same way as the fourth Ashes Test against England at Headingley three months ago.

The Australians lost that match by six wickets after inviting England to a run chase but they crushed the old enemy in the following Test.

Sports bookmakers expect Waugh's men to exact the same revenge on New Zealand when the second Test starts in Hobart on Thursday week.

"The only reason England and New Zealand got close was because we had two days of rain," McGrath said.

"That's the way we play the game. I would rather be criticised for being too aggressive than too defensive. I would rather see a game go like that than have a boring draw."

McGrath has endured an unusually slow start to the season, and his match figures of 1-146 were his worst return in the opening Test of the summer since 1994-95.

But the 31-year-old bowled better than those figures suggest, becoming Australia's major weapon in the second innings when he tied down the Kiwis while they took runs from the other end.

© 2001 AAP