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%.