Where does thou begin when five days of Test cricket contained so much juice? Aotearoa's win over Pakistan wasn't just compelling viewing because it was five days of pure Test cricket delight, on top of all those twists and turns were all of the Blackcaps top-six batsmen scoring a half-century or more, a funky Bay Oval pitch, Neil Wagner's bung toes, a big ol' 3-hundy from Tim Southee and Mitchell Santner chiming in as only Slinky can.

Who else can let rip a laser from below their knees for a crucial run-out and then snare the winning wicket via a Steven Adams rebounding jump? Santner's feet for the catch are roughly higher than his release on his run-out throw...

Matt Henry comes into the squad for tomorrow's second Test and as I wrote over the past 12 months, both Henry and Santner found themselves on the outer after that prickly tour of Australia as various changes were forced and made. May that remind you of the full steak and cheese here (the Blackcaps last Test tour was to Australia where umm, yeah) and also how much of life is about circles, spirals and koru. The Blackcaps Test team will continue to evolve rather intensely over the coming year or so and all that came to pass in 2020 led us to a really fun Blackcaps Test 11 in Tauranga, so maintain an open mind.

As always, everything Santner does looks really smooth and that applies to his lefty-spin. When pondering the Blackcaps Test team, as long as Santner's spin is serviceable and accurate, his all-round skills simply make the Blackcaps better. Sticking with the bowlers, there is nothing cute about coming to Aotearoa to face the Blackcap any more even though Trent Boult still uses his manners at all times and Tim Southee ... did Southee take the piss out of Wagner when he took his 300th Test wicket?

Southee appears to let rip 'aah my toe!' as Santner and Will Young look on in concern, then they all chuckle. I'm feeling the need for a hefty Southee yarn tomorrow ahead of the second Test, so I'll diverge from any more Southee thoughts here.

Neither Southee or Boult are naturally angry though, the fire in their belly swings around instead of boiling and for batsmen who can somehow handle the ball moving both ways under full control of Southee and Boult, they won't suffer too much niggle. As for Wagner and Kyle Jamieson? They bring a different edge to the bowling unit, always staring down the batsmen, always offering coaching tips and always enforcing respect on Aotearoa soil. Sometimes throwing the ball too close to the batsmen as well.

Sport is all about athletes and skills, what's overlook is how those athletes and skills inter-twine and connect with each other. Stats suggest that this is one of, if not the best bowling unit Aotearoa has produced and while there have been individuals who are perhaps better Test bowlers, I'm firmly of the belief that the current Southee/Boult/Wagner/Jamieson unit is among Aotearoa's best. How their skills and attributes compliment each other is the key, so is the energy of each bloke.

Jamieson has played all his cricket under Kane Williamson, so here are the updated averages for Southee, Boult and Wagner under Williamson's captaincy...

Tim Southee: 24.44avg.

Trent Boult: 26.86avg.

Neil Wagner: 22.63avg.

Kyle Jamieson's First-Class summer thus far: 36 wickets @ 11.97avg.

Since the start of the Plunket Shield this summer, Jamieson has played six longform games and bowled in 11 innings with 2+ wickets in every single innings. Jamieson has played five Tests, with 4+ wickets in every Test.

First innings century: Kane Williamson - 129.

First innings halfie: Ross Taylor - 70, Henry Nicholls - 56, BJ Watling - 73.

Second innings halfie: Tom Latham - 53, Tom Blundell - 64.

That's every bloke in the top-six batting line up scoring some runs. For the batsmen and bowlers, the performances in this Test hold a splash more funk to me as I view the Bay Oval pitch as being my favourite pitch at the moment. We can all fizz over the bowlers dominating on green seamers and the batsmen having the kiwi skills to deal with touring seamers on such pitches, otherwise there are some flatter decks in Aotearoa where batsmen enjoy themselves.

2020 Test batting stats...

Tom Latham: 10inns, 38avg, 4 x 50.

Tom Blundell: 10inns, 27.77avg, 2 x 50.

Kane Williamson: 6inns, 83avg, 2 x 100, 1 x 50.

Ross Taylor: 9inns, 33.85avg, 1 x 50.

Henry Nicholls: 7inns, 47.33avg, 1 x 100, 1 x 50.

BJ Watling: 7inns, 21.42avg, 1 x 50.

The batsmen not only scored runs on a genuinely exciting pitch, they did so against a hearty Pakistan bowling attack. Think back to early in the Test when Kane Williamson and Ross Taylor were battling with the Blackcaps 13/2 in the 11th over, Shaheen Shah Afridi had just dismissed the openers and Mohammad Abbas wasn't missing his plastic camping plate on a probing length. Everyone knew it was compelling viewing, the commentators were heavily engaged and it felt as though Aotearoa needed Williamson and Taylor at the crease to deal with the bowling; best batsmen to deal with the best bowlers.

One look at the scorecard would suggest that this Test wasn't much different to all the other Test wins in Aotearoa. Watching the game told us that this was Test cricket at its finest and the kiwi batsmen had to toil, grit their teeth and deal with a variety of challenges to score their runs. This Test demanded such quality from the batsmen, while the slightly different conditions to the stereotypical kiwi pitches also saw the skillful bowlers thrive.

When every bloke in the top-six scores runs and the four kiwi seamers take 18 of the 20 wickets between them, the only bit to poke at is Santner. I don't know if Santner is the best spinner in Aotearoa, I do know that Santner is kinda freaky as far as cricketing ability goes and given how 2020 started it's rather funky that Santner has come back around to add x-factor to the Blackcaps Test team.

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Peace and love.