Not a great start to an ODI series - one bloke gets 105 and the next top scorer is Danny V with 27, then the bowlers aren't able to finish their job.

It was fantastic to see the King - Ross Taylor get a hundy. The importance of Taylor gets slept on as people get excited over B-Mac and the Prince - Kane Williamson. It seems that with so much interest and intrigue around the role players of the squad, that we either don't really care about Taylor or we're just used to his run scoring. 

Taylor's the key because he scores swiftly. If Taylor's stagnant, then it's not a good sign. We saw him rotate the strike with class and more importantly finish off an innings, good signs from our best.

People seem to be going off Jimmy Neesham, but that's because he has set his bar so high ... and he's not in the best form. No one really stood up though with the openers Anton Devcich and Dean Brownlie getting their 'Let's Try Make The World Cup Squad' campaigns off to average starts. The other bloke who will need some solid ODI runs is Tom Latham, who also didn't do so flash. Latham's interesting because he could fill in anywhere, but he'll need runs as that line for the last few batting spots is pretty long.

The bowling? Well it was disappointing to see the bowlers unable to contain Pakistan after a good start. Kyle Mills and Adam Milne were pretty good, as they compete for one of the remaining bowling spots in my eyes. Mills got a wicket, Milne probably bowled better but didn't get a wicket so may the battle continue. It's weird because Neesham's two wickets could have been hugely important, but he's pretty easy to score off so he wasn't able to to contain/bowl 5 good balls an over.

Devcich is now the 4th spin option with Williamson back to hurling a few down the pitch and it's hard to see the Black Caps playing with two spinners + Williamson in NZ. Different rules apply in the U.A.E however with spin going good, so it will be interesting to see how the spin dynamic pans out through the rest of the series. 

An immediate over-reaction of mine would be - the gulf in quality between our top tier and the next tier was evident. Keep an eye on this, it'll be pretty worrying if the guys on the fringe aren't able to step up, especially with a spots on the line.

Howzat!? I remember playing cricket one time, reserve grade where you had to umpire yourselves and a lovely bloke on my team turned down an LBW appeal because it was pitching outside off. Lol.