An otherwise entertaining second day's play of the third Test between Australia and New Zealand at the Adelaide Oval was marred by an umpiring controversy which involved Nathan Lyon.

In the 54th over of Australia's first innings, Lyon attempted to sweep Mitchell Santner but the ball ricocheted off his arm and was caught at second slip by Kane Williamson.

New Zealand were claiming for a catch and were pretty confident, but the on-field umpire Sundaram Ravi was unmoved, prompting the visitors to use a review.

The third umpire Nigel Llong had a look at multiple hot spot replays, all of which showed a clear mark at the lower end of the bat but the snickometer showed nothing. 

After looking at various replays, the third umpire refused to overturn the on-field call as he felt that there was no conclusive evidence of the ball hitting the bat.

The New Zealand skipper Brendon McCullum was visibly distraught and had a long chat with the on-field umpire while the fielders were left with disbelief.

Australia were 118 for eight at that stage and Lyon went on to score 34 more runs while featuring in a crucial 74-run partnership with Peter Nevill for the ninth wicket.

Speaking at the press conference after the day's play, New Zealand batsman Ross Taylor expressed dissatisfaction over the decision as he believed it had a huge impact in the game.

"The players were pretty confident it was out, the HotSpot showed up, Lyon walking off and getting to the boundary - I think it's had a big bearing on the match," Taylor said.

"But it is what it is, we've just got to get on with it, hopefully we can bat for as long as possible tomorrow.

"That was one of the discussions the boys did talk about in the change room, we can understand when umpires make the wrong decision on the field, but once you've got so many different angles and what not, you think that more often than not, 99 to 100% of the time you're going to get the right answer.

"But I guess we didn't today."

At the end of the second day, New Zealand were positoned at 116 for five, having a lead of 94 runs over Australia.

© Cricket World 2015