Starc takes nine as Aussies thunder to crushing victory

Australia's resurgence as a Test cricket force was confirmed under the glare of Perth's floodlights as they completed a 296-run thumping of the world's second-ranked outfit inside four days.

The win, completed six minutes before the scheduled stumps time on the penultimate evening, came when New Zealand were bowled out for 171 and it followed wins by an innings in each of the Domain Series Tests against Pakistan during the preceding weeks.

While the Black Caps were gallant throughout and brilliant in flashes, they proved no match for the speed and swing of Mitchell Starc (9-97 for the match) and the spin of Nathan Lyon (6-111) on a pitch that never quite demonstrated the demons expected after being baked by four days of hellish heat.

Australia now enjoy the best part of a week's break before reconvening in Melbourne for the Boxing Day Test, and New Zealand have a tour game in Melbourne in which they must regroup and find a way of dealing with the hosts' bowling firepower.

After Australia declared their second innings at 9-217 early on Sunday, the Black Caps' top-order again folded and they never threatened the victory target of 416.

If New Zealand weren't sufficiently deflated after spending at least part of each of the preceding four scorching days in the field, their morale surely drained further knowing they needed to post the second-highest fourth-innings score in Test history to win the game.

So what began as a notional pursuit became an exercise in futility within an hour of beginning.

The dismissal of opener Jeet Raval for a single-figure score was scarcely a surprise, given the 31-year-old has averaged 5.33 in his past nine Test knocks over the past nine months.

However, the removal of the Black Caps' best batter and lynchpin Kane Williamson came against the run of play, especially in light of the manner in which the skipper began his innings.

The world's third-ranked Test batter was gifted a full-toss by Starc when he first arrived at the crease, which he gratefully clipped off his pads to the square-leg boundary.

He then pocketed another four from the second ball he faced, when Starc again over-pitched while searching for swing with the new pink ball.

From his sixth ball, Williamson unfurled one of his signature extra-cover drives against Pat Cummins to claim a third boundary which prompted Tim Paine to wring a bowling change and introduce Lyon.

The very first delivery that Lyon let go landed unerringly in the foot marks created by Starc bowling from the opposite end, and it spun so sharply and bounced so steeply that Williamson could do little other than fend it on to his person from where it looped to short-leg.

If New Zealand were to somehow save the Test, or defy history by pushing for a win, Williamson needed to have posted a hefty hundred and he would have sought obdurate help from his middle-order.

But with the captain lost to the cause, the lieutenants began to fall with rhythmic regularity.

Ross Taylor, after Williamson the man most likely to bat a day or more, didn't survive an hour before he tried to cut Starc and was caught behind the wicket via a bottom-edge.

In the next over, opener Tom Latham's 111-minute vigil ended when he was trapped on the crease by Lyon and looked to be stone-dead lbw only for umpire Aleem Dar to decline the Australians' beseeching appeal.

Much earnest discussion followed, before Tim Paine decided to give his wretched record with DRS reviews another round and was delighted when the video verdict showed the ball smashing into middle and leg stumps.

The dismissal of Henry Nicholls neatly encapsulated his team's fortunes in a Test where they have often been far more competitive than the final scores will betray.

The left-hander pushed forward to a Lyon delivery that fizzed past the blade and thudded into his front pad, only for it to rebound to the back of his bat and into the outstretched right claw of Travis Head throwing himself forward at silly point.

With the top half of the visitors' batting sent back with less than 100 runs on the board, it seemed the Test was destined to finish before the floodlights took full effect.

However, keeper BJ Watling – who had been struck flush in the grille of his batting helmet by a frightening ball from Cummins that spat from the cracked surface – found an ally in Colin de Grandhomme and frustrated Australia for more than an hour.

Lyon thought he had de Grandhomme caught behind on 18 and Dar agreed, only for the allrounder's call to review showing he had clearly missed the ball.

Then Watling, having ground his way to 30, edged the Australia spinner past fellow keeper Paine's right thigh and narrowly wide of the usually flawless Steve Smith at slip as the Kiwis looked likely to take the game into a fifth day.

Bu the removal of de Grandhomme in the over immediately after the day's finals drinks break brought the innings end at a speed expected of Test cricket played under lights.

After de Grandhomme parried Cummins to slip, Watling became the second victim of a successful Australia review that revealed the faintest touch of his batting glove as a Starc thunderbolt whistled past his ribs.

Mitch Santner and Neil Wagner then fell to the kind of bouncer barrage that the Black Caps had unleashed a night earlier – the second of those wickets handing Starc his tenth scalp of the game – before Lyon snared the final scalp of Tim Southee.

It rounded out a thumping win for Paine's men who had completed similarly emphatic victories over Pakistan in the two Domain Tests that preceded this game.

Some had suggested Australia missed a trick by not declaring their second innings the previous evening, which would have allowed them a dash at New Zealand's top-order under lights instead of surrendering a brace of their own wickets.

But the rationale for batting deeper on the fourth day was as clear as Perth's flawless summer sky as  - for the fourth consecutive day – thermometers pushed 40C in the hour before play began at 1pm local time.

Given rain across the final two days was about as likely as a white Christmas in Perth, there was no compulsion for Australia to prematurely curtail their innings particularly given they would be a bowler light when they began their final push for victory.

The plan, therefore, was to bat as deep as possible into the first session and beyond the heat of the day to allow their bowlers maximum time to rejuvenate and ensure the Black Caps were subjected to maximum exposure.

However, despite the brutality of the weather and the apparent hopelessness of their task, New Zealand's bowlers kept banging away – into the pitch and at their opponents – and wrapped up Australia's innings inside an hour today.

Nobody better exemplified that spirit and stamina than South Africa-born seamer Neil Wagner who produced one of the most admirable fast bowling stints witnessed in a Test match on these shores.

Not since Peter Siddle's back-breaking 63.5 overs against South Africa at Adelaide Oval seven years ago has a paceman been required to send more than the 360 deliveries that Wagner bowled in Perth.

But few other quicks could have taken on that workload on four consecutive days of near-40C heat with such dogged adherence to a gut-busting, short-pitched strategy and his match return of 7-151 will endure as a triumph of will, if not final result.

Wagner was eclipsed on the scoresheet by Tim Southee, who delivered a 'mere' 51.3 overs but collected 9-162 for the match including a deserved five-wicket bag in Australia's second innings.

After Wagner removed Cummins, caught low-down in the leg-side as he tried to tickle another short ball around the corner, Southee closed out the innings that was aborted an hour before lunch to save hobbled seamer Josh Hazlewood the pain of having to bat.

The short-ball ploy also accounted for Matthew Wade, when he pulled Southee to a fielder running in from deep square leg and the 31-year-old completed his five-for when he had Starc caught in far less conventional circumstances.

Having swung with typical gusto to score 23 from 29 balls and break the stranglehold NZ's bowlers had maintained for much of the innings, Starc looked to club Southee over mid-wicket only for his top-edged fly ball to be caught by Taylor near the third-man rope.

With the clock showing almost 2pm, and the lead stretched beyond 450 and past any realistic hope of being chased down, Paine called in his men in the hope of nipping out a couple of Kiwi batters in the hour before the break.

When the second of those was his rival skipper, Williamson, the outcome was effectively foregone.

Australia: David Warner, Joe Burns, Marnus Labuschagne, Steve Smith, Matthew Wade, Travis Head, Tim Paine (c/wk), Pat Cummins, Mitch Starc, Nathan Lyon, Josh Hazlewood

New Zealand: Tom Latham, Jeet Raval, Kane Williamson, Ross Taylor, Henry Nicholls, BJ Watling, Colin de Grandhomme, Mitch Santner, Tim Southee, Neil Wagner, Lockie Ferguson

Domain Test Series v New Zealand

Australia squad: Tim Paine (c), Joe Burns, Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Michael Neser, James Pattinson, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Matthew Wade, David Warner.

New Zealand: Todd Astle, Tom Blundell, Trent Boult, Colin de Grandhomme, Lockie Ferguson, Matt Henry, Tom Latham, Henry Nicholls, Jeet Raval, Mitchell Santner, Tim Southee, Ross Taylor, BJ Watling, Neil Wagner, Kane Williamson (c)

First Test: Australia won by 296 runs in Perth

Second Test: December 26-30, MCG (Seven, Fox & Kayo)

Third Test: January 3-7, SCG (Seven, Fox & Kayo)