How about that for the start of Aotearoa's Test cricket summer? 

Yeah, that was the start. West Indies was a starter, a little taster before the Poms popped over for their two-Test series and in all honesty, England resembled the West Indian batting unit. I always find myself walking a fine line, balancing between offering as much context as I can to the rip-snorting first innings like Trent Boult and Tim Southee dished up and then straight up giving credit where it's whole-heartedly due.

I find myself balancing down this fine line because I believe and still believe that the Blackcaps aren't quite as good as many people think, or maybe more because I think the Blackcaps could get a lot better in the coming years. Youz can thank Lesson for that.

In that regard, we need to keep it real and know that England's batsmen utterly capitulated in their first dig. I'd also suggest that their second crack with the bat was just as bad, in a very different fashion; numerous batsmen got themselves in, passing 50 runs and doing all the hard work only to get themselves out. What was Ben Stokes up to wofting at a short ball in such ugly fashion? Johnny Bairstow was dismissed by a half-tracker, twice.

England fans and pundits will be scratching their noggins at most of their batsmen's dismissals and the return of Alistair Cook's slump. 

But of course, Trent Boult and Tim Southee were delightful with the ball. They know how to best-use the moving ball in Aotearoa and executed as we'd expect them to. Neil Wagner bowled short again and got wickets again, while Todd Astle's leggies finished the job - as most leggies do.

Kane Williamson became Aotearoa's statistical Test cricket GOAT (Ross Taylor is my personal favourite) with his 18th Test century and Henry Nicholls has sealed the #5 Test batting spot for 2018 with his classy century. 

This Test was fun to watch when cricket was played, it was good to see England suffer and obviously good to see the Blackcaps winning Tests/playing Test cricket. Most importantly, a 1-0 series lead means that the Blackcaps can not be defeated in this series and when you consider how the T20 tri-series and ODI series vs England finished up, this is a low key crucial win for kiwi cricket in 2018.

In terms of my insights, there's simply not much to offer. I can write some poetry describing how gorgeous Trent Boult's swingers are or serve up the same ol' yarn about how amazing Kane Williamson is, but where's the value in that for you? What do you gain? You watched the cricket and know by now that we have exceptional cricketers and that Wagner's hard to handle when he drops short.

Nothing about this Test was new, or funky other than the day/night aspect and don't get me wrong, that's great, it truly is. This Test has me more intrigued about what's to come, more so than offering insights into what happened. 

What adjustments will England make with bat and ball? They have lingering issues from the Ashes with an unsettled batting line up and mundane bowling attack (stylistically).

Do the Blackcaps have a killer instinct? They are 1-0 and England are there for the taking and the Blackcaps have other batsmen who will be wanting to contribute in the second Test.

What will be the last cricketing taste in our mouths from this summer?

I'm just generally interest in how the next Test plays out with the back-drop of England being up shit's creek and Aotearoa being the big dawgs on home turf. Despite my personal preferences on how the Test team looks moving forward, you can't make any changes to the team and everyone did their jobs in a game where everything went the way of the kiwis.

I do have a final note that points to my feelings about the Blackcaps Test team...

I like Henry Nicholls and anyone who pays any attention to domestic cricket knows that Nicholls should be a Blackcap, or at the very least given a chance to suss out international cricket.

Celebrating Nicholls' century in a grand way though ignores the fact that Nicholls is yet to genuinely be challenged overseas. His two Test centuries have come in Aotearoa and to this point in his career, Nicholls has played 12 (of 17) Tests in Aotearoa, one in India and two in both South Africa and Zimbabwe.

There's no way we can make judgements (good or bad) about Nicholls from such a small sample size; he averages 12.50 in India, 16.50 in Zimbabwe and 56 in South Africa. Like so many other kiwi cricketers, Nicholls is good in Aotearoa and the reason Williamson, Taylor, Bout and Southee-ish are renowned cricketers is because of what they have done overseas.

Obviously this isn't the fault of Nicholls, we just can't come to any conclusions about the Blackcaps team or individuals until they play in foreign conditions. The last time the Blackcaps played Test cricket overseas was October 2016, in India and this isn't a shot at NZC (I do love firing shots but...) as there was a Champions Trophy in 2017 etc.

The major point here is that the perception right now of the Blackcaps Test team is solely based on what they have done in Aotearoa. Most of the Test cricket world/elitest club, wins and performs well on home soil so what the Blackcaps are doing is par for the course with Test cricket. Yet we haven't even seen what the Blackcaps can do overseas, so in a way, we know very little about the Blackcaps and individual players.

Jeet Raval and Colin de Grandhomme are yet to play a Test overseas.

How can we say anything about their Test cricket abilities when they haven't even played in another country?

Enjoy the second Test for what it is and saviour the moment - I'll be nice today and won't fire any shots about the lack of Test cricket.

Just don't come at me, talking about this player showing what he's capable of or how that player should be in and out of the team. We know nothing about the team and players, other than they go alright in Aotearoa.

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Peace and love 27.