The six key moments from Auckland

In a game that was supposed to be a war of the big-hitters on a ground of postage stamp proportions, the sight of ball ruling bat proved a refreshing delight and added new life to a tournament that has threatened to reduce bowlers to the role of bit players.

Quick Single: Australia v New Zealand scorecard

From Trent Boult’s mesmeric spell to Mitchell Starc’s extraordinary late-innings bowling clinic, batsmen were left flummoxed and red-faced until the clinical cool head of the day – New Zealand’s Kane Williamson who landed the final blow to remain unbeaten on 45 – ended the drama.

The drama of the day, topped only by the notion that the two teams might potentially meet again in a semi-final at the same venue, sees New Zealand emerge undefeated after four games and even warmer favourites for their first World Cup.

The Australians, by contrast, now face a lengthy road trip with potential danger games against Afghanistan in Perth (next Wednesday) and Sri Lanka in Sydney (Sunday week).

Quick Single: Black Caps prevail in Eden Park epic

If nothing else, the travel schedule will grant them time to ruminate on the key moments of today’s one-wicket loss to the Black Caps.

To help that process, here are half a dozen key moments that shaped the outcome.

Introduction of Daniel Vettori

In the lead-up to the game, the focus on the comically short straight boundaries meant the notion of utilising a spin bowler seemed almost as laughable.

So when New Zealand’s opening pair Tim Southee and Trent Boult, the swing duo that was identified as the Black Caps’ decisive weapon, started nervously and were leaking runs at the rate of 10 per over, it was more than brave for Brendon McCullum to summon orthodox tweaker Daniel Vettori to the crease.

But the 36-year-old’s influence was immediate, and not only in the middle.

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Vettori gets Smith caught behind // Getty Images

With the power play field restrictions still in operation and polite applause still echoing for Australia reaching 50 midway through the sixth over, Vettori dropped immediately on to a probing length with each of the five consecutive dot balls he began with met with increasingly fervent cheering.

In his second over he lured David Warner into a false stroke that was almost snared by a diving Trent Boult at backward point.

Then, with the final ball of his fourth over which was perhaps the untidiest of his spell to that point, the sight of a rare delivery dragged down marginally short was seized on by Watson who clubbed it straight to Tim Southee on the deep mid-wicket boundary.

That was the wicket that triggered Australia’s worst collapse in their 45-year ODI history, and effectively turned the match.

Trent Boult’s second spell

The threat posed by the Black Caps right-arm, left-arm new ball combination looked to have been over-stated when Tim Southee began the innings with an exaggerated wide and Australia’s openers swung hard and successfully to steal the early initiative.

Rattling along at around 10 an over in the first quarter of an hour, it appeared as though the visitors were eyeing a total of around 400 and McCullum a major headache as his trump cards were on the end of a flurry of big hits.

But with Vettori applying the clamps from one end, the New Zealand skipper was able to swing Southee to the northern end where he trapped Warner in front the ball after the spinner had got rid of Watson.

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Boult is mobbed by his teammates after taking another Aussie wicket // Getty Images

With two new batsmen at the crease, he was able to attack further and it was Boult – regularly pushing upward of 140kph on the speed gun and moving the ball deceptively late – who swung the match in his team’s favour.

He destroyed a middle-order that had no answer to a bowler who was prepared to attack the stumps despite the short boundaries and was backed up by a skipper who carried clear plans that worked better than he could have hoped.

After his first three overs yielded a run a ball, Boult came back to complete one of the most remarkable spells in World Cup history – five wickets for a solitary run as the Australians struggled to lay bat on ball.

And when they did it was only to drag it back on to their stumps. Or parry it at the catching fielders placed deliberately in their eyeline.

Mitchell Johnson’s opening delivery

The late scrambling by Australia’s final pair Brad Haddin and Pat Cummins – whose 48-minute stand of 45 was a record in an ODI against New Zealand – and with 40 minutes to bowl prior to the dinner break, Australia’s best hope of getting back into the match appeared to be early strikes.

Or at the very least, to create sufficient pressure and uncertainty in the minds of the Black Caps’ openers that the victory target suddenly seemed far larger than 152.

With the euphoric home crowd roaring and the imposing physical figure of Martin Guptill taking strike, Johnson roared in only to see his opening delivery slide down the leg side where the opener simply helped it to hurtle to the boundary rope just 45m behind him.

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Johnson finished with figures of 0-68 from six overs // Getty Images

The crowd’s explosion of exultation was only heightened by umpire Richard Illingworth’s call of no-ball as Johnson breached the bowling crease.

If the sense of release was not palpable at that moment, it was a minute later when Guptill gratefully seized on the offer of a free hit and monstered Australia’s most fearsome fast bowler over the mid-off boundary and deep into the sun-soaked outer terrace.

At 0-11 after one legitimate delivery, that run chase suddenly seemed to shrink to even smaller dimensions than the heaving stadium.

McCullum’s call to arms

While Guptill landed the first blows, it was always going to be McCullum’s contribution that dictated whether New Zealand’s run chase would be nerve-wracking or never in doubt.

When he charged at Mitchell Starc’s second delivery and launched it beyond the extra cover fence it was clear that he was still carrying the blowtorch he had applied to England’s bowlers in Wellington a week earlier.

So it was some optimism and no smaller helping of bravery that – having watched McCullum blast the first two balls of Johnson’s second over for a six and a boundary over the off side – Michael Clarke marshalled multiple changes in the field to try and claw some sort of foothold in a match rapidly slipping away.

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McCullum was on the attack from ball one // Getty Images

He brought his fine leg fielder inside the circle, stationed an undoubtedly nervous Glenn Maxwell at short leg and then swooned from slip when Johnson fired in a 147kph thunderbolt towards McCullum’s ribs, cramping him for room and forcing to drop in left arm instinctively for protection.

The crack of leather on the Kiwi captain’s unprotected forearm was felt if not heard around the ground and the 33-year-old, who had warmed up for this match by sparring in the ring with a boxing pal, summoned every gram of renowned steel to stop himself betraying any pain.

A huge welt formed just below his left elbow, a pressure bandage and then a retrospectively useless arm guard were affixed to the impact area as the Australians reflected on the similarity between that blow and the one that had fractured South African Ryan McClaren’s arm in Harare last year.

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McCullum drops to his knees after being struck by Mitchell Johnson // Getty Images

When McCullum then backed away and sliced the next delivery above the slips and over the third man rope on the bounce, the roar that accompanied rivalled any of the day to that stage.

Clearly, nothing the Australians could hurl at their team was going to daunt them and in becoming the first player in the bowler-dominated match to reach 50, off 21 balls no less, the Black Caps skipper installed himself alongside AB de Villiers as the tournament’s most prized wicket.

Starc’s change of ends

When McCullum finally perished, New Zealand was more than halfway to victory and outright World Cup favouritism.

Only a miracle was going to prevent the previous favourites being handed a humiliating thrashing, and the sight of strike bowler Johnson being manhandled for 52 from his first four overs suggested that was as unlikely as McCullum emerging from the game without a bruise.

But when he was switched to the northern end from which his fellow Mitchell had been operating, Starc sent a pulse though his team and a shiver of uncertainty around the packed ground with a pair of deliveries that would have done Boult proud.

Bowling full, fast and with the hooping swing that had been absent in the early overs, Starc left Ross Taylor looking as flat-footed as so many of the Australians’ top-order and flattened his off stump in the process.

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Australia's best with the ball // Getty Images

At that point, dinner – day-night cricket’s immovable feast – was taken with appetites doubtless dampened in both dressing rooms and then no sooner had play resumed then that Australian vision threatened fleetingly to appear.

Having spent much of the break honing his radar by bowling at a single stump out in the centre, Starc produced a peach that Grant Elliott was clearly unable to stomach and his late bid to arrest its path merely gave it unfettered access to his stumps.

An agitated murmur percolated through the Eden Park stands, and even though Corey Anderson negotiated a searching hat-trick delivery it was merely an entrée to the enthralling final course that a most extraordinary was destined to serve.

Starc claimed 3-4 from three overs in a devastating second spell to finish with 6-28 for the match, remarkable figures given his team ended up on the losing side.

Kane Williamson’s innings

Regarded as one of the brightest young talents in world cricket, 24-year-old Williamson found the nerve and the skill to play the innings that all those around him in such an unseemly rush were unable to harness.

Amid the top-of-the-order pyrotechnics, the middle-order wobble and the desperate lunge for the line in the final overs, Williamson mixed resolute defence with controlled cricket shots to provide the backbone around which his teammates could fall.

With only one hefty clout separating the Black Caps from a win, the Australians boldly offered the last remaining batsman a single in the knowledge their hopes of winning remained with cleaning up the tailenders.

And with Williamson watching helplessly from the non-striker’s end, that’s what Starc set about doing taking out two of the remaining three with consecutive deliveries.

But when he was unable to land a third consecutive inswinging yorker through Trent Boult, Williamson found himself back at the business end and – not prepared to trust anyone else, given there was nobody to come – chanced his keen eye and cleared that short boundary that had been such a pre-game talking point.

Not that there was a shortage of others in the wake of the tournament’s most entertaining game to date – one that put paid to the notion this will be forever more a batsman’s game.

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Clutch // Getty Images