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Tensions boil over between Scott Styris and Mitchell Johnson - Source: Getty -
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It was their game to lose, and they nearly did.
In fact, they almost certainly would have, if not for the dramatic intervention of a man who hours earlier might've been forgiven for thinking his days in the heat of international battle were behind him.
Scott Styris wasn't even in the playing XI until Daniel Vettori had to be scratched with a neck injury.
And while making the most of international recalls with vital contributions is a trait renowned among Australia's cricketers, this time it was Ricky Ponting's men who were on the receiving end of a comeback king.
What seemed like a routine run chase for the Black Caps turned into another Chappell-Hadlee classic when, still needing 77 off 67 balls, stand-in skipper Ross Taylor foolishly holed out to deep mid-wicket.
Neil Broom and Daryl Tuffey followed in quick succession and Black Caps fans had that "here we go again feeling". Australia may have been labouring on the field but they were winning the mind games yet again.
Taylor had enjoyed an immaculate captaincy debut up until his crazy dismissal. He'd set his fields intelligently, backed it up with countless feats of athleticism himself, and was the only batsman on either side to ever really come to grips with the pace of the wicket.
But Taylor is still a young man and as the Black Caps' chase unravelled, so did his thinking. First in his dismissal and then in the delaying of the batting powerplay right until the death; a dangerous tactic that paid dividends more out of good fortune than good design.
Scott Styris, on the other hand, has seen it all before. He's been facing up - and usually losing to - the Australians for a decade and, now in the twilight of his career, treasures every victory over the old enemy so much more than his teammates, a decade his junior.
At first he was rusty, swinging too hard at the ball and overestimating his pace between the wickets, but quickly regained his feel for a run chase. He was, after all, in the familiar territory of having to steer a New Zealand batting line-up that had succumbed to the speed wobbles yet again.
In the victory throes he was joined by another veteran and possibly the coolest head on the park of all, Shane Bond.
It's remarkable how 150km/h firebrands suddenly look pedestrian when Bond is hopping around at the crease, working fast bowlers to leg and neatly squeezing half volleys into gaps.
And it was fitting that the victory was finished off by two old hands, both of whom have endured summers of criticism and disappointment, but neither of whom could ever be accused of not being fully committed to the cause.
While the Black Caps were far from their best, by their captain's own admission, the Australians were playing catch-up cricket for most of the contest.
"We gave it a good crack, but we were just a little bit behind all night", Ponting said.
"It's never nice to lose a game but you always learn more from a win".
Hardly pushed by Pakistan and the West Indies' erractic attacks, Australia's batsmen seemed off the pace and didn't appear to have enough runs on the board, given the short boundaries and placid nature of the McLean Park wicket.
Their bowlers, though brisk, missed their length too often at the death and could not quite summon enough effort balls to blast through the New Zealand tail as they might've expected to do.
Bollinger, Harris and Hopes bowled as if they'd simply been attending net practice all summer - which is more or less what they've been doing - while Mitchell Johnson was again reminiscent of Glenn McGrath; although only in the sense that his puerile histrionics soured a match that had otherwise been played in the highest of spirits.
Perhaps that's overly harsh on the normally-cheery Queenslander. After all, he is far from the first bowler whose skin Scott Styris has gotten under. There is something about the tenacity in his face and the unrefined butchery in his strokeplay that makes bowlers' blood boil.
Styris will win more popularity contests than beauty contests, but he won't mind that at all.
Dashing bravado and deft strokeplay alone don't win matches, as Brendon McCullum and Ross Taylor could attest in Napier.
More often than not it's down to bloody-minded determination and keeping a cool head when everyone else is losing theirs.
Those qualities alone won Scott Styris more than just Wednesday night's match. They won him an international lifeline that he'll savour long after the euphoria of McLean Park dies down.
