New Zealand captain Daniel Vettori said he had never played in front of a crowd making more noise than that at Christchurch as Tim Southee bowled the ball that produced a Twenty20 tie against Australia on Sunday.
New Zealand went on to win the tie-breaker over and level the two-match Twenty20 series while setting up an exciting Chappell-Hadlee Trophy 50-over series.
"It was the most amazing game," Vettori told Sky Sports.
"It was the loudest crowd I've ever played in front of. We needed to bowl well to make Brendon's (McCullum) innings worthwhile. It was one of the finest Twenty20 innings you will ever see," he said of McCullum's innovative 116 not out.
New Zealand set Australia a target of 215 to win and it fell to the 21-year-old Southee to bowl both the last over of the regular 20 overs, and then the tie-breaker over.
"He bowled 11 out of his last 12 in the hole which was an amazing performance," Vettori said of his choice of Southee ahead of Shane Bond for the eliminator over.
Anyone who could bowl as Southee did under such impressive pressure was a quality player, he said.
McCullum was equally impressed saying it was 'fantastic' that a 21-year-old could step up like Southee had at the end of the game.
McCullum said while it was a satisfying innings on his part he had struggled to start with but had some early luck and built on that.
He thought New Zealand had lost the game 20 times during the match and it showed that you had to exhaust every resource if you were going to beat Australia and New Zealand had been forced to do that.
Australian captain Michael Clarke, who was run out off the last ball of the game attempting a third run that would have provided victory, said it had been 'an amazing game'.
While he was disappointed the side didn't get the win, he felt the preparation for the World Twenty20 Cup would be invaluable.
McCullum had played 'an unbelievable innings' he said while Cameron White's 64 off 26 balls was also a wonderful innings, he said.
"Both teams played brilliantly," Clarke added.