The Kiwis, humiliated by an innings loss in Brisbane, appeared to be lurching towards another ignominious defeat inside four days when they faltered to 36 for four at tea chasing a record 464 to win.

But Nathan Astle and Jacob Oram resisted Australia's attempts to break through for 90 minutes in a stubborn 63-run fifth-wicket stand before Astle lost concentration and hit to Justin Langer at short cover to give hometown hero Darren Lehmann his first wicket of the match.

Wicketkeeper Brendon McCu-llum took up the struggle with Brisbane century-maker Oram and the pair got New Zealand to the close in the gathering gloom and under floodlights at 149 for five with Oram unbeaten on 40 in 129 minutes and McCullum on 34 in 38 minutes.

McCullum's spirited resistance included a six off the world's leading wicket-taker Shane Warne with the pair's 50 partnership coming in a brisk 34 minutes.

It was a victory of sorts for the Kiwis to survive to stumps with some showers and cooler weather forecast for Tuesday's last day, giving them a remote lifeline to wiggle out from Australia's clutches.

Australian skipper Ricky Ponting had the option of enforcing the follow-on on Sunday's third day with an overwhelming 324-run innings lead, but chose to give his bowlers some respite from the hot weather and time to recuperate for a final victory assault on the beleaguered Kiwis.

Ponting called a halt at 139 for two, setting New Zealand an improbable victory target of 464 runs off a minimum of 143 overs over almost five sessions.

The highest score New Zealand have achieved in the fourth innings to win a Test was 324 for five when they beat Pakistan by five wickets in Christchurch in 1993-94.

Australian coach John Buchanan defended the declaration, saying: "We believe it was the appropriate time to do it. It still left us with about 140 overs for the rest of match, it gave us the opportunity to bowl 50 overs today so when we come back tomorrow the bowlers are still in very good shape.

Ponting got quick reward for his second declaration of the match 13 minutes after lunch with four Kiwi wickets.

Opener Mathew Sinclair was out in the fourth over, leg before wicket to Jason Gillespie for two.

The Aussies were jubilant when all-time leading Kiwi run-scorer Fleming was out five overs later, when a Glenn McGrath delivery glanced his thigh pad and clipped the top of the off-bail.

The Kiwis lost two wickets in as many balls when opener Mark Richardson was caught by Langer at third slip off Michael Kasprowicz for 16 and then Scott Styris was out on the first ball of Warne's following over for eight.

The Kiwis did well to contain the Australians to 78 runs in the morning session through their finger-spinners Daniel Vettori and Paul Wiseman, who picked up the wickets of Australian opening pair Langer and Matthew Hayden.

In the process, Langer became the 10th Australian batsman to score 6,000 runs.