All Ireland Hurling Championship 2014: Score, Recap for Kilkenny vs. Tipperary

Tipperary and Kilkenny played out an incredible All Ireland Hurling Championship final at Croke Park on Sunday, the score finishing in a draw at 3-22 to 1-28, meaning a replay is required for the third year running.

Tipperary had a narrow lead at half-time, but the Cats came storming out of the blocks after the break and looked to be on their way to victory.

However, Tipp showed impressive bottle to level the scores once more and could have won it in the dying seconds, with John O'Dwyer narrowly missing a free to win it from inside his own half.

A frantic start to the game saw both Kilkenny and Tipperary score early points with the two sides tied up at 0-5 to 0-5 after a quarter of an hour.

Tipperary claimed the first goal of the game as Bonnar Maher took a fine catch and ran clear to fire home after 21 minutes and stretch his side's lead to 1-8 to 0-6.

Maher then drew a penalty moments later, but Seamus Callanan was unable to capitalise as Richie Hogan got down well to keep out the sliotar.

Richie Power added Kilkenny's first goal just minutes later after he found himself unmarked and rounded keeper Darren Gleeson to get his team back within two points.

As RTE GAA pointed out, it was an incredibly tight encounter:

Tipperary managed to keep their two-point advantage, however, going in at the break leading narrowly at 1-13 to 1-11.

Kilkenny wiped out the advantage almost immediately after the break. TJ Reid produced a wonderful finish just 40 seconds after the break, and Shane McGrath then claimed a point to tie things up once more.

The fans packed into Croke Park were witnessing an absolute classic, but the Tipp supporters would have been less than pleased when Richie Power scored Kilkenny's third goal just before 50 minutes to make it 3-16 to 1-18.

Hogan put in an immense second-half performance for Kilkenny, inspiring his team to keep their four-point advantage for much of the period, per the Irish Examiner's John Fogarty:

However, Tipperary refused to lie down and, despite a second saved penalty from O’Dwyer, they were just one point back with three minutes to go.

And O'Dwyer tied things up minutes from time before narrowly missing the free, which could have won it for Eamon O'Shea's side.

RTE GAA provided the margin of the miss as well as the stats from a truly incredible game:

O'Shea said before the match that he was looking for a performance from his players, no matter what the result, per The Score:

"You’re trying to see if you can get a performance from the team; you’re not trying to see whether you win or not, just can you get a performance from the team on the day."

His wishes were met, and both sides will have the opportunity to fight it out once again when the replay is fought on Sept. 27.

If that occasion is anything like Sunday's encounter, it will make for an unmissable view as it seems impossible to split these two sides.