Cricket: McCullum lifts NZ off canvas

Brendon McCullum will start day five just six runs short of his fifth test century. Photo / Getty Images

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Brendon McCullum is poised for a restless sleep, six runs short of his fifth test century after a heroic rescue act left New Zealand to fight another day in the first cricket test against Australia in Wellington.

McCullum, with 94 not out, captain Daniel Vettori, 77, and Daryl Tuffey, 23 not out, showed their batting cohorts how it was done as they lifted New Zealand to 369 for six in their second innings at stumps on a rain-shortened fourth day when the Basin Reserve was buffeted by 130kmh-plus gales.

The job wasn't done yet, with New Zealand just 67 runs ahead and needing to bat nearly two sessions tomorrow to head to Hamilton for the second test with an unlikely draw.

Playing his 50th test, McCullum reined in his natural instincts to blunt a frustrated Australian attack for 215 minutes and 178 deliveries before bad light and showers forced an early end, with play called off just before 6pm.

He hit 11 fours and a hooked six off Mitchell Johnson that soared out the gate on to Rugby St, to beat his best score from seven previous tests against Australia of 84 not out in Adelaide last summer.

With four centuries and three scores in the 90s to his name, it could be McCullum's best test innings yet if New Zealand save the match after they followed on 302 behind.

McCullum and Vettori posted a record sixth-wicket stand against Australia of 126, before Tuffey helped add an unbroken 60 in 71 minutes in the gathering gloom.

There was controversy when McCullum, on 52, didn't offer a shot to spinner Nathan Hauritz and was given not out by umpire Asad Rauf, but fielding captain Ricky Ponting challenged the leg before wicket decision.

Television technical staff deemed the Virtual Eye technology, which tracks the likely path of the delivery, couldn't make a reliable reading from the fixed camera on the wind-blown southern tower, so third umpire Aleem Dar couldn't rule.

The ball appeared to be hitting the stumps and Ponting remonstrated with umpires Rauf and Ian Gould to no avail.

A dramatic day was in store when a morning gust recorded at 129kmh catapulted one ground staffer face first on to the pitch and dragged another across the outfield as the covers billowed to the boundary like an America's Cup spinnaker.

But the wind was suddenly in New Zealand's sails after a dire Sunday when 11 wickets tumbled, leaving them teetering at 187 for five.

Australia's pacemen - including five-wicket first innings standout Doug Bollinger - wondered what hit them and only Hauritz, who wheeled down 49 overs and took three for 119, was a regular threat.

Vettori took charge early, breezing to 50 off 64 balls as he cut, drove, hooked and shuffled.

His only life was on 60 when he chipped a ball through Johnson's fingers on his follow through, and he and McCullum soon passed Stephen Fleming's and Chris Cairns' sixth wicket record of 110 on the same ground 10 years ago.

Hauritz finally removed Vettori when he chopped a sweep on to leg stump after a vital three-hour, 119-ball knock.

McCullum looked solid apart from two half-chances, to Ricky Ponting on 38 and gloveman Brad Haddin on 48, before his big stroke of luck thanks to the Wellington gales.

- NZPA