Adelaide, Nov 30 (IANS): Cricket Australia (CA) on Monday declared that there was a record-breaking television audience for the inaugural day-night Test, with the thrilling finish on the third day being witnessed by 3.19 million viewers across the country.

Australia defeated New Zealand by three wickets late on Day Three to clinch the series 2-0, with 3.10 million people tuning in to see Peter Siddle hit the winning runs.

The game was a hit for Channel Nine's prime-time across all the three days, with an average audience of 2.313 million spectators watching Sunday's night session.

Network Nine's head of sport Steve Crawley was thrilled at the ratings and said that the concept of day-night Test cricket is here to stay.

"We witnessed something pretty special over the weekend with the birth of day/night Test cricket," Crawley was quoted as saying by cricket.com.au.

"Not only was it a great contest, but as a spectacle it was an instant hit with viewers. We couldn't be happier with the results with almost 3.2 million people watching Nine's broadcast last night. And with more than 1,24,000 packing into the Adelaide Oval over the three days, it's certain that day/night Test cricket is here to stay. A sports loving nation now has something new to cheer about," he said.

Cricket Australia boss James Sutherland has hailed the game as a success. "Intuitively you would assume that it would be a success, but everything seemed to go even better than to plan," he said. 

"We're certainly very excited about it now. The TV audiences were fantastic."