David Leggat: Remarkable test win one for the fans

Douglas Bracewell of New Zealand is congratulated by team-mates. Photo / Getty Images

Opinion

Two hours after beating Australia, the New Zealand team trooped out to the middle of Bellerive Oval yesterday, lugging a chilly bin.

They stood in a tight huddle. A few words were said, a raucous chant went up, moments before spraying the bubbly over themselves.

One happy team for sure. And why not.

After all they had achieved what a week earlier seemed beyond them and squared their series, put another tick in a relatively short win column against the Aussies and were entitled to feel pretty good about life.

At the after-match ceremony Australia were called up on stage to receive the Transtasman Trophy, which they retained as holders.

If you've ever seen a "victorious" team wishing they were somewhere else, this was it.

As the cameras clicked, the actual winners almost unobtrusively wandered back to the changing room to begin their celebrations.

Australian cricketers aren't particularly good at hiding their feelings when they lose to New Zealand, or indeed anyone else.

Just how deeply captain Ross Taylor felt about the day was crystal clear in the watery eyes and halting speech at his press conference. This mattered, for him, his team and, as he made abundantly clear, the New Zealand fans.

They were owed one after the capitulation of Brisbane a week earlier.

This was a win achieved by a team with no world-class performers, and shorn through injury of a key player, Dan Vettori.

Spare a thought, too, for the man who, in 14 years of international cricket, has never been in an XI which has beaten Australia in a test.

They did have a group who kept believing through a remarkable test which, in terms of overs bowled, lasted the equivalent of only eight full sessions.

And they had a young player who took nine wickets with a terrific, sustained performance of top class seam bowling. Doug Bracewell's uncle, John, was in the last New Zealand team to win in Australia, at Perth in 1985.

It could have gone the other way, and no mistake. It was that close and Australia's last pair, David Warner and Nathan Lyon scrapped furiously to get across the line.

So often in the past they have stolen a contest at the last. Not this time.

The result doesn't suddenly make New Zealand world beaters. But it does show what is possible with skill, perseverance and heart.