Ross Taylor, it seems, is bemused.  Welcome to the club Rosco, most of us have been for years when it comes to the Black Caps. In-consistency really is the new/old black.  Two solid performances, albeit against a team without several leading (suspended) players, and who looked like they had they had the kind of jet lag you get from a non-stop trip to Mars, is followed by an absolute shocker.

In the smash and grab that is 20/20 a loss will often be magnified, but last night was bad in any book.  We now move to an entirely different form of the game, and we will see if the selectors play any more interesting games with the test team.  Their experiments with this team did not bode well.  Dean Brownlie?  A couple of good knocks for Canterbury and he is in for a look. We won’t see him again is my guess.

I feel for Adam Milne, and I don’t really think a lot was gained by playing him.  20/20 is not the showcase for speed without variation or subtlety.  Don’t get me wrong, he is a great prospect. He is  quick, and at 18 still has a fair bit of filling out to do.  But he needs to be developed at provincial level. Lance Cairns got this earlier this month, only to go onto the selection panel and promptly be part of picking him.

The Black Caps selectors over the last few seasons have been a bit like a summer race-goer, who puts a dollar each way on the outsider on the basis that it would be amazing if it came off, but no harm done if it does not. Except that the harm is to the consistency of the team, and the confidence of the individual.

There have been positives of course.  McGlashan has worked out how to score, Guptill, and Styris have looked good, Nathan McCullum looks in good touch (and surely must go to 50 over World Cup) and his brother and Dan Vettori are still to come back.

But it looks like another summer of bemusement for us all. And secretly, don’t we just love it!