Dumped from the Cricket Australia central contract list earlier this year, circumstances — a long-term back injury to Pat Cummins, the retirement of Mitch Johnson and confirmation late on Friday that Mitch Starc had the early stages of a stress fracture in his right foot — have combined to make Siddle important not only for this Test but also the three-Test series against the West Indies.

​He became the 200th Australia to reach the milestone when he had New Zealand's Doug Bracewell caught at short mid-wicket by Joe Burns.

Siddle, who turned 31 on Wednesday, reiterated that he thought his chance at reaching the milestone had passed him by when, after being overlooked for eight consecutive Tests, he was kept on the sidelines during the Ashes at Trent Bridge in conditions that would have suited him.

"I had a chat with 'Punter' [former captain Ricky Ponting] out in the middle [at Trent Bridge] while the boys were warming up and said my chance might have slipped away, that I mightn't get the opportunity to take 200. But after the Oval it got close enough, and I got my chance here," said Siddle, who was dropped in favour of Josh Hazlewood after last summer's Adelaide Oval Test.

"It's a long wait to play again in Australia, that's for sure, but it was nice to come out here again today and get the remaining two wickets and obviously join the 200 club. It's a nice reward."

Siddle explained that the kiss immediately after snaring his 200th wicket was not only a tribute to Phillip Hughes, whose died exactly a year earlier.

"It was obviously a big, emotional day for us as players, but [also] my nan is not well back home. I was just very pleased at the end to get the 200 and know that [while] she probably wasn't watching she'll be able to see the highlights and know that I got there," he said. "The past 12 months I haven't played a lot of cricket, so knowing that she'll get to see that makes me very happy."

Australia's biggest problem across the first two Tests of the Trans-Tasman Trophy series was shackling New Zealand's Kane Williamson. Siddle said earlier in the week he would rely on a tactic of trying to "bore" Williamson out.

Williamson had been scoring at about a run a ball until Siddle entered the attack in the seventh over. He and Nathan Lyon stymied his scoring, and then Starc built on that pressure when he returned for a second spell. Starc's leg-before dismissal of Williamson for 22 was preceded by 15 consecutive dot balls to the right-hander, an unprecedented barren stint for him in the series.

"It's always nice [when a plan works]," Siddle said. :It wasn't me that got the wicket but to get that result, especially to him, I think it gave us all a little chuckle that it worked, that to a player that's in good form you can still break them in a basic part of cricket.

"All in all, it was a pretty good performance with the ball, just to be able to build pressure. Everyone that came on showed that, and we got the result at the end of the day.

"When you bowl a team out for [just over] 200 and you get 2-54 at the end of play I think it's a pretty good position, knowing that the ball is a bit older now and tomorrow we get two good sessions with hopefully a bit of sun out and we can make the most of that."

Siddle lamented that Starc had been injured but predicted that even without him Australia would have enough bowling depth to dismiss the Black Caps for a second time. He said the pitch conditions were incomparable to when he tried — and narrowly failed — to bowl Australia to victory against South Africa at Adelaide in 2011-12. In that Test, Australia was also down a bowler due to an injury to James Pattinson.