Cricket: Black Caps back in breathtaking business

Left-arm spinner Daniel Vettori was again to the fore, rescuing his side in the field. Picture / Reuters

MELBOURNE - New Zealand partially resurrected their stricken tour of Australia last night when they won the first of their three-match one-day series with a hair-raising two balls to spare.

Criticised for their limp performance in the tests at Brisbane and Adelaide, the New Zealanders at last had something to smile about at the Telstra Dome when they chased down Australia's 246 to win by four wickets.

Pushed along initially by a second-wicket partnership between Nathan Astle (70) and Mathew Sinclair (48) worth 128, New Zealand suffered a mid-innings collapse and seemed to be going belly-up before Hamish Marshall and Brendon McCullum stole the game on the wire.

The pair came together at 208 for 6 after 46.1 overs with 39 runs needed off 23 balls, and managed to achieve the improbable, crashing the required runs off just 21 before running jubilantly towards their teammates in the stand.

The critical contribution came in the 48th over, bowled by Michael Kasprowicz, Marshall and McCullum taking turns at crashing two boundaries each as 23 runs came from the bat, and New Zealand were dragged back into the game.

Marshall justified the confidence placed in him by coach John Bracewell, noodling the ball into gaps and raising his half-century off 52 balls, and McCullum continued to go from strength to strength, producing his shovel-shot to score a boundary off the first ball of the last over.

However, for all the good work from Marshall and McCullum, New Zealand were initially well placed courtesy of Astle and Sinclair, who recovered from the early loss of Stephen Fleming and calmly marched towards the total.

Astle brought up his 50 off 75 balls and Sinclair was even more sedate, but the partnership was a critical one for New Zealand, and under-pinned their success.

The biggest fright for New Zealand came at about the 35-over mark when they lost three quick wickets, sank to 140 for 4, and seemed to be going into decline.

Sinclair was dismissed after backing up too far at the bowler's end, Astle was caught in front of the wicket after mis-cueing a drive off Darren Lehmann, and so after Scott Styris departed as well, after holing out at deep mid-off.

Left-arm spinner Daniel Vettori was again to the fore, rescuing his side in the field.

The left-arm spinner had initially watched as Kyle Mills and Ian Butler were systematically demolished during the opening stanza, raising the possibility of the Australian batsmen starting the ODI series as they finished the tests.

However, within five overs of being introduced to the attack, Vettori forced the hosts to check their aggression and adopt a slightly more circumspect approach.

Wearing black anti-reflective body paint under his eyes, the 25-year-old won an lbw shout against Ricky Ponting in his third over, and then sent back Damien Martyn and the big-hitting Andrew Symonds in his fourth.