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Match Report:

Scorecard

Thrilling day-night Test in the balance

Day-night Test result on a knife edge after a day of high drama in Adelaide, with the DRS again creating a major debate

The concept might be innovative, the ball a hue of new but the capacity of the game-changing Decision Review System to conflict and confound remains stoically unchanged.

New Zealand enters tomorrow’s third day and night of the third Commonwealth Bank Test in Adelaide holding a precarious 94-run lead and five wickets up their sleeve.

And – if the view of countless cricket fans worldwide can be reflective of their mindset – a deep sense of injustice.

Watch: Australia's bowlers hit back under lights

As the pink ball continued to cause even deeper shades of blushes for all but a committed few batters in this Test, the Black Caps initially seized a decisive hold as Australia succumbed to the scale of batting collapse not seen since that ugly couple of hours at Trent Bridge last August.

Offered assistance from the pitch and the ball for the first time since landing in Australia more than a month ago, the NZ bowlers tore through Australia’s re-cast batting line up to grab 6-62 in a dominant opening session this afternoon.

By the time the second session began the home team was floundering at 8-116, trailing by 86 runs on the first innings with the only batting available being the accomplished Peter Nevill, the promoted Nathan Lyon and the hobbled Mitchell Starc (who was only to limp out if sorely needed).

WATCH: Lyon at centre of DRS controversy

That necessity became unarguable when, two runs and less than two overs into the second session, Lyon attempted that same sweep shot that saw him see off a hat-trick delivery from Mark Craig in the previous Test at the WACA and saw the ball loop to second slip.

No sooner had umpire S Ravi denied the unanimous New Zealand appeal than a second appeal was lodged, and third umpire Nigel Llong (himself a former spin bowler for English county Kent) began reviewing the available video evidence.

Which showed the ball had demonstrably bounced from Lyon’s right shoulder, but might also have scraped the top edge of his bat on its way through to Kane Williamson who had completed the catch.

Watch: Australia miss a few opportunities in the field

Minute after minute elapsed as the case was prosecuted in the judge-only case, and even though the ‘hot spot’ vision of the crucial moment that ball passed bat indicated something had come into contact with Lyon’s blade, umpire Llong could not be convinced it was the pink ball.

“There’s a mark on the bat, it could come from anywhere – from a flare,” Llong explained via radio to umpire Ravi who, after an excruciating stall in proceedings, confirmed to the bemused Kiwis and the significantly more astonished crowd of 42,372 that Lyon had not hit the ball.

With the only alternative explanation being that either the infra-red technology is flawed – as the tool’s inventor had conceded after queries about its veracity were raised during the 2013 Ashes series in the UK – or some other coincidental contact had been made that created an erroneous heat reading.

While the debate about the value of employing technology that can’t be trusted was waged ad infinitum on social media, the head of steam that the Black Caps had built across the previous two hours dissipated in the late afternoon sun and the match utterly shifted direction.

Instead of having him dismissed for a duck, the tourists were forced to watch Lyon swing long and lustily at their bowling before he eventually fell for 34 – the third-highest score in Australia’s innings.

WATCH: Lyon's innings highlights

In doing so, he added an invaluable 74 runs with Nevill to lift Australia from a position of abject arrears to one of virtual parity, with the margin between the teams narrowed to a dozen runs as Starc hobbled to the crease.

But of equal or greater importance was the hour that Lyon’s innings occupied which – when coupled with the 15 balls that Starc then survived, two of which went to and as many beyond the fence – carried Australia to a lead of 22 and the cusp of twilight.

The time when batting has been revealed to be even more difficult than it was for Australia in the earlier session, after which only Steve Smith (53 from 114 balls) and then Nevill (66 from 109) found the wherewithal to prosper.

When their well-documented frailties against the moving ball, and then a return of the inadequacies against spin threatened to yield their lowest first innings total in a home Test since they succumbed for 98 in the calamitous Ashes summer of 2010-11.

Adam Voges (who added four to his overnight score) and Mitchell Marsh (4) were caught behind the wicket, Peter Siddle squeezed a catch to short-leg and Josh Hazlewood lost his off-stump to give Mitchell Santner his inaugural Test wicket.

The exception to those dismissals was the luckless Shaun Marsh who, so desperate to make the most of his much discussed return to Test ranks, was run out due to costly indecision and some fielding brilliance from Black Caps skipper Brendon McCullum.

WATCH: Shaun Marsh's luckless run out


Marsh punched a drive to mid-off where McCullum launched to his left to knock the ball to a stop, which was enough to make the batsman – by this stage thinking he had at least one cherished run, possibly four – freeze having taken three strides down the pitch.

But by that time his captain was already charging towards the striker’s end, which committed Marsh to start again only to stall when Smith, seeing his hesitation, stole a panicked look over his shoulder.

And then kept going.

Which meant Marsh had no alternative to resume running and hope that McCullum was incapable of hitting the stumps while sitting sprawled on the ground and required to throw off-balance – all of which he completed with remarkable poise.

But the poise that had been a feature of New Zealand’s cricket during their most commanding session of their series to date deserted them in the wake of the Lyon controversy.

The spinners who had appeared dangerous prior to tea were swept and swatted with impunity by tailenders while Nevill busied himself knocking the ball into gaps.

WATCH: Nifty Nevill's needful knock

The return of seamers Southee and Boult failed to rediscover the magic of their earlier spells, and they resorted to banging the ageing pink ball into the pitch rather than wobbling it about and they too were punished as frustration levels rose and he crowd found voice.

And then, when the tourists were called to the crease with a pesky deficit of 22 to erase, any benefit they had hoped to seize through the absence of Starc from Australia’s attack was counter-balanced by the evening atmospherics.

That saw Hazlewood produce his most impressive Test spell since his debut in Brisbane a year ago, during which he accounted for openers Martin Guptill (10) and Tom Latham (17) as well as the scalp of Perth double-century maker Ross Taylor.

Who was pinned so flagrantly lbw that he began walking before the finger was raised.

WATCH: Six Australian wickets fall in first session

Mitchell Marsh, whose Test batting average now rests at an uncomfortable 23.40 with no score of 50 in his past 14 innings, proved an invaluable foil with the ball in Starc’s absence, the duration of which remains unknown.

Marsh chipped in with the key wickets of Kane Williamson (9) and McCullum 20, and if not for a missed chance by Smith in the slips when B J Watling was on 2 the Black Caps position heading into the third and potentially final day could have been even more tenuous.

Teams

Australia: Joe Burns, David Warner, Steve Smith (c), Adam Voges, Shaun Marsh, Mitch Marsh, Peter Nevill (wk), Mitchell Starc, Peter Siddle, Josh Hazlewood, Nathan Lyon. James Pattinson (12th). 

New Zealand: Martin Guptill, Tom Latham, Kane Williamson, Ross Taylor, Brendon McCullum (c), Mitchell Santner, BJ Watling (wk), Doug Bracewell, Mark Craig, Tim Southee, Trent Boult. Luke Ronchi (12th).