Mitches turn up the heat on Black Caps

Mitchell Starc found himself in unfamiliar terrain when he took the ball that was 30 overs old and the evening cloud built heavy overhead for this evening's final hour of play at the Gabba.

With figures of 0-18 from his initial five-over spell as the Black Caps set off in pursuit of Australia's distant 4(dec)-556, Starc had not experienced such a lengthy stint without capturing a wicket so far in this most fruitful summer.

While the limp stroke that brought about the end of an otherwise assured innings from NZ opener Tom Latham was a blot from the blue, the fact that Starc could strike with the first ball he delivered on his return to the crease was entirely true to recent form.

As was the fact that, in doing so, he substantially altered a game that appeared to be making its way towards an inevitable last-day draw, engorged on runs served up on a flat pitch that had left all previous bowlers feeling decidedly unwell.

WATCH: Mitches work over Ross Taylor

In 30 minutes of carnage that has underscored some marked differences between what had been until that point two similarly matched teams, NZ lost four top-order wickets for 16 runs in just 25 deliveries to end the day 5-155.

Trailing by 399 runs and in dire trouble.

Adding to their discomfort was the sight of their best bowler, Tim Southee, shuffling from the field after an hour's play this morning with what was officially diagnosed as an irritated disc in his back, but which informally has him in doubt for the second innings and beyond.

Quick Single: Blow for Black Caps as Southee leaves field

As reinforced by the Black Caps' decision to draft left-arm seamer Neil Wagner into a squad that must be wondering what force of nature it has found itself up against over the past two days.

Given the damage inflicted by Starc and his new-ball partner Mitchell Johnson in that match-defining half hour, it makes sense that the NZ selectors might want to get another southpaw into their attack to partner Trent Boult, even if Southee is good to return in the near future.

But the brutal truth is that swathe Starc and Johnson cut through a dumbstruck NZ top order was the result of raw pace as much as it was the guile and movement were able to find with the far-from-new ball in the fading light.

WATCH: Southee injury a blow for Black Caps

Latham's dismissal after he had appeared untroubled by the opening onslaught and set for a deserved half century could be attributed to Starc's speed even though it was the first ball of a new spell and he was yet to build a full head of steam.

The opener attempted to punch the Australia spearhead through the off-side with feet planted and bat away from his body, only to find the ball on him before he planned and higher on the blade than he expected which caused the bat to twist in his hands and a catch to loop lamely to point.

Ross Taylor, who is yet to pocket a score of any substance on this tour, then endured a seven-ball stay that yielded several near misses and false starts but not a run before the uncertainty caused by Johnson's pace led him to waft at a ball he could have let go as it angled across him.

WATCH: Kane Williamson stands tall with fifty

Like Starc, Johnson had appeared unthreatening and marginally short of rhythm in his first four-over spell but in the subsequent four – prior to his new-ball partner removing Latham – he had generated greater speed and caused the Black Caps' batsmen to hurry on a couple of occasions.

He might have been considering a rest up until the moment the breakthrough came, but the decision to keep going was revealed as genius when he snared the vital wicket of Brendon McCullum five balls after he sent Taylor on his way.

The combative Kiwi skipper looked likely to take the challenge to Australia in spite of his team's ever-bleaker position when he rocked back and flicked a Johnson short ball above the slips cordon to the rope.

WATCH: Highlights of Khawaja's stirring 174

But an even bolder bid to punch Johnson through the off-side field from a static start saw the ball fly from the toe of his bat into the lap of Adam Voges set deep at first slip.

When Starc knocked over NZ allrounder Jimmy Neesham with one of his preferred party tricks – the delivery that is angled in from wide on the crease, committing the batsman to play only to have it shape cruelly past the dangling bat – the tourists had slumped from bravely battling to bottom out of the boat.

And if not for their impressively implacable vice-captain Kane Williamson, unbeaten on 55 having stood firm with B J Watling (14no) in the final 40 minutes, it's safe to venture they would be already sunk.

Even before the game switched direction violently, Williamson looked a class above as he drove the Australia quicks fearlessly down the ground and calmly let pass the most threatening short stuff they could muster on a pitch that until this evening offered bowlers nothing but grief.

WATCH: Voges continues the NZ pain

Indeed, Williamson returned his team's best bowling figures of a brutally taxing 130.2 overs in the field when he captured the wicket of Australia's top scorer Usman Khawaja (174) at which point Steve Smith immediately declared his team's innings with around an hour to bowl prior to tea.

The fact that Khawaja succumbed to a tired reverse sweep that instead provided a catch more often seen in French cricket to backward point won't show in the part-time off-spinner's raw bowling analysis.

By that stage, the Black Caps were happy to grab a breakthrough in any manner they could given Khawaja and Voges (83no from 127 balls) had put together the third century partnership of the four wickets to fall by employing an increasingly disdainful repertoire of strokes along the way.

The lack of fear and, at times, respect they exhibited to the hamstrung NZ attack only served to highlight how little malice lurked in the Gabba pitch.

WATCH: Smith done by lightning Boult

Until the day's final hour or so, the only exception to that procession was the gem produced by Boult that found its way through the swinging gate that was Smith's attempted to off-drive to leave the Australia skipper in territory that he has rarely charted of late.

The lowest scorer in his team's innings, albeit with 48 in the book.

But with his team in an all-but-impregnable position in his first Test as formally appointed captain, he left the field with a smile that stretched as wide as the gulf between the opposing side's standing in a match that was defined by half an hour this evening.