Australia survive dramatic twist

This was the one that got away from New Zealand. After a couple of declarations and a frantic run-chase, they needed 21 off 18 balls with five wickets in hand. Chris Cairns and Craig McMillan were both striking the ball cleanly and had just picked up 31 runs off the previous two overs. Victory seemed a formality.

But, after a poor match by his lofty standards, Glenn McGrath stood up to be counted with a brilliant 19th over that went for just one run as McMillan flailed desperately in search of runs. It was dastardly stuff - were it a one-dayer at least two of the deliveries would have been wide, but here they were totally legitimate, and chillingly cool too. For the first time in a Test innings in Australia, McGrath had not been given the new ball. If it was a deliberate psychological ploy from Steve Waugh, it worked perfectly.

Cairns then holed out off Brett Lee, who had been brought on to replace a punch-drunk Shane Warne, and the game was up for New Zealand. They finished a tantalising 10 runs short of victory and when the dust settled, Australia had drawn their first Test in 24. A last day that threatened to be the dampest of squibs had brought 459 runs, 11 wickets and 102.4 overs. It was breathtaking stuff.

Well though they played, it would have been an injustice if New Zealand had won, because not even the most black-eyed Kiwi could claim that they flippin' murdered Australia. In fact the Aussies bossed the game for four days. Were it not for rain, and Steve Waugh's allergy to draws, New Zealand would not have had a sniff of victory.

They were under the cosh from the moment Stephen Fleming won the toss and put Australia in. Hardly a ball passed the bat and, at 224 for 0, Fleming was sitting on the worst insert since Mohammad Azharuddin invited Graham Gooch to bat first at Lord's in 1990. On his home ground, Matthew Hayden batted with an authority he has never shown in Tests in Australia, and though Justin Langer looked to be plumb lbw in the first over, he ground out his second consecutive Test hundred. Their belief in their own omnipotence saw Australia's middle-order collapse to 6 for 39 - four to Craig McMillan and Nathan Astle - as a succession of batsmen tripped over trying to run before they could walk.

Only 38.4 overs were possible on the second and third days, but there was time for the indomitable Gilchrist to restore order in an eighth-wicket partnership of 135 with Brett Lee - a record for Australia against New Zealand. Gilchrist cracked his fourth Test hundred to equal Ian Healy's record for Australian wicketkeepers. But whereas Healy had 181 innings, this was Gilchrist's 31st.

His partner Lee was a worthy Man of the Match. He bowled with real devil and won the battle of the pretty boys with Cairns, dismissing him twice and cuffing him around during a swash­buckling 61 that took his batting average in Australia to 95. Lee was the only Australian to get to grips with the majestic Cairns, who, like Dion Nash and Daniel Vettori, was playing in his first Test for over a year. Cairns continued the outstanding form he showed against Australia in 1999-2000 with a couple of rollicking innings. New Zealand squeezed past the follow-on, whereupon Fleming immediately enquired of Waugh's masculinity by declaring. When Gilchrist strode out to open, Waugh's response was transparent.

Ten years ago, a target of 284 in 57 overs would have brought the shutters up, but Test cricket runs to a different rulebook these days, and New Zealand went after their target from the off. Mark Richardson nudged a crisp 57 before Stephen Fleming and Nathan Astle added 100 in 18 overs to bring New Zealand's target down to 101 off 16. Standard pyjama stuff it seemed, but McGrath had other ideas.