Smith, Voges tons set up final day

When Australia’s Test team embarked on its revamped, post-Ashes period the questions that hung over its capacity to maintain the standards set by its predecessors centred on the top-order batting.

Now, as a Test match the home team might have historically already converted into a win given the dominance they exerted over the first day and a bit, the spotlight will fall on the ability of Australia’s bowling line-up to match the batters’ deeds.

Heading into the final day, Australia sits in a position from which it’s difficult to foresee them tumbling to defeat after an early stumble in their second innings was corrected by skipper Steve Smith (131no) and Adam Voges (101no) this afternoon.

WATCH: Highlights of Smith's 12th Test ton

The pair completed their centuries amid the lengthening shadows of day four, Smith’s 12th Test ton being met with a restrained celebration and followed by a pair of painful blows to the left side of his protective helmet and then his unprotected right arm.

The second of those, inflicted by NZ pace bowler Matt Henry, looked to have caused some damage as a welt and bruise appeared immediately below the skipper’s elbow yet it did not prevent him from helping himself to three consecutive boundaries in Henry’s final over of the day.

Voges, who reached his second Test ton in the day’s penultimate over with a savage pull to the mid-wicket boundary off occasional spinner Kane Williamson, was contrastingly demonstrative as he celebrated in front of his home crowd.

WATCH: Highlights of Voges's first Test ton on home soil

It was a moment the 35-year-old concedes he believed had passed him by after he was called into the Australia Test squad nine years earlier but deemed surplus of requirements, and remained patiently in the wings until getting a chance in the West Indies last June.

Quick Single: Voges posts hometown hundred

The pair’s unbeaten 212-run third-wicket stand lifts the number of individual century makers in this four-day run glut to six, with the promise of more to come.

And while the home team have turned the 65-run deficit that came as a result of New Zealand’s highest ever total in Australia (624) into a 193-run advantage heading into the final day, turning that into a result and a two-nil lead in the three-match Commonwealth Bank Test Series will be hard work.

Even allowing for the widening fault line that’s opening ever-wider along the length of a pitch that has so far coughed up a total of almost 1500 runs over four days, at an average of around 70  per wicket taken.

The friendly nature of the once fiery Perth strip can be cited as mitigation for the lack of penetration that both teams' bowling attacks have showcased.

Quick Single: Langer laments flat pitches

But with the Australia's selectors to name their squad for that historic day-night Test in Adelaide that will likely decide whether the Trans-Tasman Trophy is awarded or shared, the performance of the seamers may loom as the last day's most relevant contest.

Smith announced at his pre-match media conference at the WACA Ground that Josh Hazlewood (1-134 from 32 overs in NZ’s first innings) had endured a heavy workload, which is often a precursor to a bowler facing a spell. 

Despite being Australia’s most potent and successful bowler, Mitchell Starc powered through 37 overs for figures of 4-119 and was seen on several occasions feeling at his right ankle which has troubled him for the best part of a year.

And Mitchell Johnson, who was the subject of rumours prior to play that he may announce his retirement as soon as the end of this Test, appeared down in pace and equally short of verve in conceding the most runs by an Australia bowler in a Test innings at the WACA (1-157).

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There were occasional signs that the fissure in the pitch might belatedly provide something for overworked bowlers to aim for, the most stark being the delivery that Henry bowled to Smith as he closed in on his 12th Test century.

WATCH: Henry bowls 134km/h leg-break

A ball that landed on a length and then took off like a leg-break on human growth hormone to jag past the edge of Smith’s bat, shanked out of the way in alarm, and almost beyond the head of Black Caps 'keeper B J Watling.

But in between the rare occurrence of the ball deviating off the straight, the pitch played sufficiently well to suggest the notion of dismissing a Test team inside two sessions would require the skills of a freakishly in-form bowling attack.

Or some batting that was in equal parts cavalier or timid.

And due to the benign character of the pitch and the fast-scoring nature of the WACA outfield, the knowledge that a NZ batting line-up that includes Martin Guptill, Kane Williamson, today’s record-breaker Ross Taylor and Brendon McCullum is well capable of scoring above a rate of a run a ball.

Which in turn would mean Australia, with a 1-0 series lead already safely in their pockets, would hardly set a target below 400, if they entertain a last-day declaration at all.

The manner in which Taylor added to the 235 upon which he resumed this morning to ultimately reach 290 – the highest Test score by a visiting batsman in Australia – tendered a convincing case that batting hasn’t become much more fraught as the pitch has worn on.

WATCH: Highlights of Taylor's record-breaking knock

But even more compelling evidence was tendered by New Zealand’s number 11 batter Trent Boult (first-class batting average 13.76) who remained unbeaten on 23, an innings in which he was scarcely troubled.

And which at one point saw him bludgeon Hazlewood beyond the long-on fence to record his first six against Australia.

WATCH: Boult hits Hazlewood for 16 from the over

It’s that sight, rather than memories of Johnson, Starc and Hazlewood putting the frighteners up an intimidated opponent, that might well convince Smith to err on the side of caution come the final day.