shining a light 'cause they wanted it seen.

This past weekend (plus Friday and Monday) was overall a bit odd. First Ross Taylor scored an actually quite beautiful century in Bangalore, then Jade Dernbach bowled Hashim Amla at the Oval, then Kruger van Wyk scored runs, then Ravi Bopara bowled Hashim Amla at Lord's, then Craig Kieswetter remembered how to keep wicket, then Brendon McCullum clearly forgot how to keep wicket - and all of that topped off by the sinusitis from hell. Lovely.

In all seriousness though, that was quite the knock from Ross Taylor. Yes, it was about time he delivered something significant, and I'm still not sold on him (and I probably never will), but he certainly deserves credit for discovering his off-side (67 of 113 runs scored on the off-side) and more importantly for getting up after the thrashing in Hyderabad. The whole team actually deserves all the credit in the world for that, because them getting through this second Test with their heads held high was not only not a given, but also something only the eternal rose-tinted-glasses-wearers among us (yes, they still exist) would've dared to hope for.

I'm usually not the type of person to bask in the glory of having been right about something, but didn't I say after the Caribbean Adventures Tour that Trent Boult and Tim Southee should be certain starters and the remaining bowlers had to fight for the remaining places? Boult's performances, while unlucky to not pick up more wickets, in both Tests in India and Southee's staggering numbers of 7-64 in Bangalore speak their own language, don't they? It's been an overall more than commendable effort from all bowlers, and while the sentimental part of me doesn't want to see the back of neither Chris Martin nor Daniel Vettori (the bowler) just yet, I wouldn't be too upset if we were to stick with these four for the foreseeable future.

Naturally, there were still a lot of things that could've been done better, and while I appreciate the runs both Kruger van Wyk and Daniel Flynn have contributed, I still don't really understand the continued omission of BJ Watling. For starters. The batting order isn't right, but I'm annoyed at myself for continuing to moan about the opener of all openers, Brendon McCullum, so I won't even start this time around, my thoughts on that subject are well-known.

New Zealand posted a good first innings total, though probably still a bit below par given the state of the wicket, but then allowed India to score way too many middle-order runs. When you have a team at 80-4, especially after you've put a respectable total on the board, you put your foot down and bowl them out, you don't allow the 5-8 batsmen to score 252 runs between them. And with the inevitable return of the brain explosions in New Zealand's second innings, they failed to post a defendable total. Chasing down 260 on that wicket with almost six sessions to go wasn't that big a task on that wicket, and even less so with the head start the bowlers gave Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir to lay a good foundation for the incoming batsmen.

And again, maybe even the 260 could've been defended, if the Blackcaps had a captain who appears to know what he's doing and why. Sometimes he gets lucky, a decision he's made actually pays off, but surely that's not enough? His bowling changes and field settings overall are so clueless, he makes Alastair Cook look like Steve Waugh. Who allows two new batsmen to get comfortable via easy singles by failing to bring the field up, when he's only got 100 runs to work with? The bowlers struck after a rain-break right away, India lost three wickets for only 14 runs, and he allowed Virat Kohli and MS Dhoni to settle and repeat their first innings heroics.

If you lack world class players in your team, you can't also afford to carry a hapless captain along with you, just because The Blazers didn't want to give the captaincy to Brendon McCullum. All this talk about Ross Taylor needing more time and more advice and more help from McCullum ‒ no, what Taylor needs is to not be captain. It'll give him the much needed opportunity to focus on his batting, and the team is more inclined to follow McCullum anyway.

That said, they should all be very proud of their efforts. Being this pleased about a defeat by five wickets with more than a day left in the game says an awful lot about what we've grown accustomed to, especially after the disastrous outings in the West Indies and most recently in Hyderabad. But at this point it isn't really about winning, it's about adopting the right mentality, about wanting to improve, and a win here and there will come sooner or later. I can handle losing, it's part and parcel of following sports, and it seems to be the norm when following New Zealand cricket, but what I can't handle is a team capitulating and players looking like they couldn't care less, and I know I'm not alone in that. Watching them during this Test and witnessing an obvious 180° change in attitude and body language was great ‒ and all of a sudden the Test became interesting and was nowhere near as one-sided as we had to deal with in the past, who would've thought? You might be on the right path here, boys!

(Title taken from "Future Love Paradise" by Seal.)