As our Blackcaps Test team moves forward, dominant wins against Zimbabwe should be the norm. Regardless of whether Zim are running hot, improving or borderline horrible, if the Blackcaps play as we expect them to, then they should be grabbing Test wins and subsequently series wins over Zim. The first Test stuck to the script to near perfection and while it's hard to make any major judgements about the Blackcaps on the back of such a performance, there's still a few thoughts to roll through.

Tom Latham, Ross Taylor and BJ Watling hit centuries and Neil Wagner took 8 wickets for the match. I don't think it's a coincidence that three of those four major contributions came from blokes who had been on the Kiwi County Tour and had been performing rather well in County cricket before heading to Africa. Taylor hit a century and a half-century in his last game for Sussex, so to see him continue that form in the black helmet with 173* wasn't exactly surprising, although it was pretty exciting to see Taylor flex his batting muscles.

Latham had been doing a sound job at the top of the order for Kent, hitting a bunch of half-centuries and more importantly, fine-tuning his craft as an opening batsman. Wagner took wickets for fun with Lancashire and it's fairly safe to assume that if Wagner's troubling County batsmen - taking 32 wickets - that he'd have some success against Zimbabwe's batsmen, simply because their exposure to an aggressive, awkward, skiddy left like Wagner would be minimal.

We not only had a healthy gang of Blackcaps in County cricket, we had blokes who were performing with bat and ball. They have now brought those performances straight into the Blackcaps set up and instead of going into a series like this cold, as has been the case in the past, the Blackcaps were led by the Kiwi County Tour lads and were well prepared to ensure that Zim never really had a chance.

The other major/only take away from this Test was that the Blackcaps dominated with contributions from much of the team and while there were performances like Taylor's hundy and Wagner's wickets that led the way, everybody chipped in. We were given an instant example as to how we can expect this team to look under Kane Williamson, with the whole bowling attack for example, offering a threat. 

I was a wee bit worried about Trent Boult's lack of wickets in the first dig, but he came back strongly in the second with 4/52, all of which were top order batsmen. Tim Southee took 2 wickets in either innings and the full bowling by Southee and Boult, allowing as much swing as possible, is nicely complimented by Wagner's hustling nature. Williamson can attack with both styles as well, using Wagner's short stuff to apply pressure and niggle away while attacking with swing is self-explanatory. Don't sleep on Southee and Boult swinging the ball different ways, which against batsmen who aren't as skillful or disciplined is a huge asset.

Apply the same concept to Mitchell Santner and Ish Sodhi. Neither was overly dominant, however Santner took wickets in either innings (2 & 1) and Sodhi snuck in with a second innings wicket. Santner conceded 1.14rpo in the first innings and only 1.88rpo in the second; you could consider him the more defensive spinner as he drifts the ball beautifully into the right-hander's pads. Sodhi on the other hand was much more expensive, but as a leggy he's there to attack and conceding runs is often a consequence of attacking. The key here is that Santner can tie an end up while Sodhi rips leggies from the other end, or Santner can tie an end up while Sodhi has a break and pace comes from the other end. 

If Williamson is to have two spinners in his team, they need to offer variety. Even though they are both spinning the ball the same way, they do it differently and have different weapons in their arsenal as well as different jobs to do for their skipper. 

Consider this 'job done'. Whenever I think about the Blackcaps, I wonder where we have been as fans and where this team is heading (No.1 Test team in the world is always the goal). Blackcaps teams in the past may have faltered in such a Test, so we should always be chuffed when our Blackcaps dominate a team they should dominate. This was also the dawn of a new era under Kane Williamson's captaincy and as we chase future glory, this team needs to be ruthless in a Test like this. Job done.