Only a consolation win..

..but since it was a fairly convincing one against the Aussies, we'll take it. Even if it needed a howler from Gary Baxter to send Ricky Ponting on his way. Bond and Southee bowled magnificently that day, though it's a pity they could only save their best for last. You could argue that the batsmen simply hadn't given them enough runs all series long.

Speaking of Bond, it's puzzling as to why he and O'Brien couldn't hang around for one last genuine crack at the Aussies in the upcoming test series. They've both been pragmatic about their future in tests - the IPL clearly offering Bond a more secure career, while IOB has domestic reasons for deciding to move to England - but really, NZ won't be playing tests for a long while after this summer. I'd have thought a final fling at an unusally vulnerable Aussie side would have been incentive enough to prolong their test careers till the end of the summer. Bittersweet it is, watching Bondy steam in for KKR while wondering what lies ahead in the tests (O'Brien, the into-the-wind specialist, will be especially missed at Wellington. Hope Tuffey or Southee steps up).

Despite two dud games in the middle, it was still a fairly competitive Chappell-Hadlee series, and few would argue that the 3-2 scoreline could easily have been reversed. I'm amazed at the continued inability of NZ's batting to fire as a unit - when the top three finally clicked in Auckland, an inevitable middle-order collapse set in, and we were reduced to seeing Daryl Tuffey perform one lower order resurrection after another. Anyway, enough cribbing. When Mills, Ryder and Elliott return, the gaps in the puzzle should be filled.

For a great review of the series, read Sportsfreak's column on the same.