This might not have been fit for a highlights package, but it was transfixing in its own way.
This is the glory of test cricket: the same sport can throw up such polar opposites of ambition and output.
For the purposes of this exercise, we'll ignore Australia's Tasmanian junket and focus on Dunedin and Delhi and have a closer look at the anatomy of extremes.
Day one, Dunedin
The portents are not great. Pre-match talk is that University Oval will provide one of those rare occasions when even the ultra-attacking, bat-first Brendon McCullum will break convention and bowl first.
He never gets to test his resolve. Angelo Mathews calls correctly and has no hesitation in inserting New Zealand. McCullum is instead left to note that his side face a tricky first session, possibly two.
Instead, they dominate the first two sessions before losing their way a little in the third.
So how do you score 400 on the opening day of a test in supposedly bowler-friendly conditions?
You need a combination of events to align, most of which happened to some degree.
1. The conditions must to be more benign than advertised
This was definitely the case. Under sunny skies, the green quickly dried off to brown and the moisture in the pitch didn't so much give assistance to the bowlers as it did provide pace for the batsmen to work with.
Far from being a bad toss to lose, it looks like New Zealand enjoyed the best of the batting conditions on day one, with the ball already taking chunks out of the pitch late in the day.
2. The bowlers have to under-perform
This was an inexperienced attack made weaker by the late injury-enforced withdrawal of Dhammika Prasad. Sri Lanka's most reliable bowling was provided by the captain's military mediums.
Yes, Sri Lanka made inroads in the evening, but their underwhelming display in the morning and afternoon sessions meant the horse had pretty much bolted.
3. Someone has to go big
Step forward Martin Guptill. Big Red needed runs to quieten the doubters after a difficult tour to Australia and he delivered 156 of them. Guptill's hard-handed technique might not consistently stand up to scrutiny against the best attacks so he needs to make sure that, when it is his day, he cashes in.
4. You need at least one otherbig score or a coupleof dynamic cameos
Australia pushed well beyond 400 in Hobart with two players scoring huge, but New Zealand showed there is another way to skin the 400 cat.
When Kane Williamson is on form, which he assuredly is, he scores sneaky fast and his 88 came off just 123 balls (SR 71.5). In fact, the biggest surprise of the day was him going out. Such was his poise and serenity, a 13th test century appeared a mere formality.
However, the real push for 400 came from the skipper. There is nothing sneaky about the way he bats. As his career hovers ever nearer to its end point, his batting has become two-dimensional in the extreme: first dimension, see the ball; second dimension, hit the ball.
His 75 on day one came from just 57 balls (SR 131.6).
With Guptill batting at a decent clip at one end and McCullum throwing haymakers at the other, 400 quickly hoved into view.
5. The captain mustkeep the field up
Mathews went defensive quite early, so this wasn't the factor it normally would be. To be honest, when McCullum is in the mood, it doesn't really matter where you have the field.
6. You cannot losewickets regularly
Again, New Zealand made a liar of this theory when they lost six in the evening session but, by then, Tom Latham, Guptill and Williamson had provided a rock-solid base from which to continue to attack.
In the context of the overall match, those wickets hurt because the home side should have been looking at a total north of 500, but in terms of 400-in-a-day, there was still enough momentum to get them there.
Day five, Delhi
New Zealand were batting with the aim of setting up victory, South Africa had just one thought in their collective mind: preventing defeat.
Having been set a target of 481 to win in a day-and-a-half, South Africa decided an 0-2 series loss sounded a lot better than 0-3 and a long, drawn-out death was more honorable than a quick one. With a little bit of luck, they might even have stolen a draw.
What South Africa did, starting midway through day four, was remarkable. Modern batsmen are conditioned to be greedy, to use the combination of big bats and small boundaries to gorge themselves when in. But the likes of Hashim Amla, AB de Villiers and Faf du Plessis were a study in denial.
To go the best part of a whole day where more overs are bowled than runs scored also requires a unique set of circumstances to align.
1. No prospect of winning
Scoring 481 in a day-and-a-half is not out of the question on paper, but it was out of the question on baked mud, especially after South Africa had crumbled against spin in the first three tests. Their batsmen had only survival on their minds.
2. Extraordinary discipline
Neither Amla nor de Villiers are slouches. De Villiers has the world record for the fastest ODI century (31 balls) yet, at Delhi, he put his backlift away, bunting everything into the turf with soft hands.
Amla faced 244 balls for his 25 runs, de Villiers 297 for his 43. Opener Temba Bavuma fair rattled along for his 34 off 117 balls and du Plessis denied himself for 97 deliveries on his way to 10.
It was futile in the end, as nobody outside these four managed to soak up more than 50 deliveries, but it was interesting watching them try.
Even long hops were treated like time bombs, with nobody wanting to walk back to the pavilion having been dismissed to a rash stroke.
3. Predominantly spin attack
Against pace, it is hard to score that slowly unless they're bowling consistently wide of the wickets. Nudges, thick edges, extras and deflections will invariably see you travelling along at considerably more than one per over. Against spinners, where you have to make your own pace on the ball, it's a different matter.
In South Africa's second innings, 102.1 of the 143.1 overs were bowled by spinners. Even with Virat Kohli keeping a coterie of fielders around the bat, the ball stayed in the infield.
It was extraordinary stuff.
Given a choice of watching day one in Dunedin or day five in Delhi, you'd take a spot on the bank at test cricket's most southerly venue every time, but neither of these outlier-like days are invalid.
That's the beauty of test cricket - it is a broad sporting church.
