Ricky Ponting didn't need the stress, but he had to admire New Zealander Chris Harris for his guts in coming out to bat with a serious shoulder injury at the SCG.

Harris damaged the rotator cuff in his right shoulder when he fell heavily in the field during Australia's innings of 7-261.

His tour seemed over as he sat in the Black Caps' dressing rooms wearing his training gear, his arm in a sling. He had told his teammates he couldn't feel his right arm.

But when a remarkable ninth-wicket stand of 90 between Kyle Mills (44 not out) and Daniel Vettori (33) got New Zealand to within sight of a boilover victory, Harris knew that duty called.

With a couple of pain-killing tablets to sustain him, Harris donned his helmet and with Hamish Marshall as a runner, came out to do battle.

At that stage, New Zealand needed 26 runs to win off as many balls. Mills had already hit four consecutive sixes, and in that form all Harris needed to do was stay with him and New Zealand could have won the match from a near-impossible position.

"As soon as he came out I ran straight to the middle of the wicket to say to him that I thought it was a very gutsy and very good effort for him to come out and bat, and do the best that he possibly could for his team," Ponting said later.

"You could see he was very restricted and was hurting a fair bit, but he showed a lot of guts."

In the end, Harris managed only four runs before Glenn McGrath ended the match by getting a yorker through his defences.

It gave Australia victory by 17 runs and sent the inaugural Chappell-Hadlee series into a decider.

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