KEY POINTS:
It is probably not something you want to see: your physio standing with you mid-pitch, your left front tooth in his hand and that warm sensation of blood running down your face. But if anything, the dental detour has only enhanced Daniel Flynn's reputation.
Sitting in the dressing room watching the replay of the incident when Flynn was late hooking a James Anderson bouncer, Brendon McCullum was apparently in awe of the fact Flynn's knees never buckled despite the ferocity of the blow. The ball hit Flynn's titanium grille so hard the grille knocked his front tooth out. At the completion of the first day's play, he was taken to a nearby dentist to see if his tooth, recovered by physio Dayle Shackel, could be saved or whether he would need a crown.
Flynn's stay at the crease was low on productivity - just four from 13 balls - but in 22 minutes he showed a similar resolve to that on the last day of the first test.
His skipper might want him to bat No 6 for a long time but, for the sake of team balance, a move up the order for Flynn might occur sooner rather than later.
The promising 23-year-old impressed at Lord's with his maturity and technique as the pressure came on during the fifth day. He was likened to fellow cack-hander Justin Langer by pundit Phil Tufnell and it is, indeed, the side of the bat he stands on that could prove the biggest determinant as to where he bats.
With the retirement of Stephen Fleming and the move up the order of Brendon McCullum, New Zealand now has a top five made up entirely of right-handers - an absolute rarity in modern-day international cricket.
It means opposition bowlers can get into a groove in terms of line and the captain is rarely called upon to make ball-by-ball decisions in terms of field changes.
To illustrate how rare it has become, England have two left-handers, openers Alastair Cook and Andrew Strauss, in their top five; Australia carried three, openers Simon Katich and Phil Jaques plus Mike Hussey, against the West Indies; and the Windies used Devon Smith and Shivnarine Chanderpaul in their top five. Graeme Smith and Ashwell Prince are anchors in South Africa's top five and Sri Lanka are left-handed heavy with Michael Vandort, Basnayake Warnapura and Kumar Sangakkara.
This is hardly a coincidence.
When you consider the next batsman off the rank back home are probably Craig Cumming, Greg Hay, Mathew Bell, Grant Elliott and Mathew Sinclair, all right-handers, the only realistic option to get a left-hander into the top five would be Flynn. There is Jesse Ryder, who would, in all likelihood, have been batting where Flynn was at Lord's but selectors would need to see how he has recovered from his hand injury before determining whether he was ready for five-day cricket yet.
It would not seem to be a seismic shift to swap Flynn in the order with either James Marshall or Ross Taylor, but Vettori would be reluctant.
"He's a new guy in the test arena and it is always easier to blood guys at that five and six level and as they get experience and mature they can go up to four or three," Vettori said.
"The perfect example is someone like Ricky Ponting, who started at six and slowly moved his way up. My preference for him is to stay at number six for quite a long period of time and hopefully, when he's ready, he can sneak up the order."
Flynn's 29 not out under intense pressure at Lord's demonstrated why he could prosper further up the order, and his ability to turn the strike over for his dominant batting partner, Jacob Oram, was another sign that he had a good cricket brain on him after he was selected as captain for the New Zealand under-19s in 2004.
And, for those whose only experience watching him bat was in his 163-minute minor epic at Lord's, that is not the way he normally plays. "I had to rein it in a bit," he said. "I'd like to think I'm normally a bit more entertaining than that."
