Heroic Australian fightback fails to draw big crowds but Nine still wins the night

The dead rubber one day cricket international between Australia and New Zealand failed to hit the heights of the first two matches last night, but still offered just enough to hand Nine the night.

Just 685,000 metro viewers tuned in to see the Aussies claim an unlikely victory to take a clean sweep of the three match series, skittling the Black Caps cheaply after posting a disappointing total in their own innings.

That first session managed 496,000 throughout the afternoon, but the audiences were enough to give Nine the advantage and a 21% audience share, to Seven’s 19.9%.

Seven had the usual Friday night line up including Better Homes and Gardens which took a hit up against the cricket, but still managed 595,000 viewers at 7.30pm.

Seven News was the most watched show of the night with 843,000 at 6pm and 821,000 at 6.30pm, while Nine News managed 758,000 at 6pm, although it was not shown on the main channel in Perth which affected its numbers.

The win put Nine on the brink of another weekly win, with a cumulative share of 21.1% to Seven’s 18.9%.

Vera was the ABC’s best entertainment show claiming 466,000 viewers, while The Graham Norton Show was Ten’s biggest title with 412,000 viewers. ABC managed a share on the night of 12.2% and Ten had 11.7%.