KEY POINTS:
It's easy to dismiss tests that don't go the distance as poor quality but that isn't always the case, as the current series has shown.
The Sri Lanka-New Zealand series has been interesting, despite the brevity of the action at Christchurch and, more than likely, at the Basin
Reserve.
But it has not been because of bad wickets, something that ruined the series when India toured in 2003.
Instead, what we've seen is some quality fast bowling performances and some magical off-spinning. If the test is dominated by accurate medium pacers and spinners who roll the ball rather than give it a rip then, sure, it should take the full five days to earn a result. But when you have genuine match winners like both these sides do, then they will force results over a shorter period of time and that is not short-changing anybody.
At Jade Stadium, we saw great fast bowling from Shane Bond, an excellent century from Kumar Sangakkara and brilliant off-spin bowling from Muttiah Muralitharan. Although New Zealand had their noses in front for most of the match, the game remained in the balance until the end.
That the end came before the third day finished was almost irrelevant. The test moved at a cracking pace and, while you can argue that the batting might have left a bit to be desired, the quality of the bowling alone was worth the price of admission.
Already in Wellington, after just two days, we have seen one of the great individual innings from Sangakkara, a terrific spell of pace bowling from Lasith Malinga and Murali continues to spin a web around the New Zealand team.
The pitch has had precious little to do with the struggles of the batsmen.
The challenge for the Sri Lankan batsmen is to play swing and bounce better. With the New Zealanders it is to deal with pace. The world in general struggles with geniuses like Shane Warne and Murali, so there is no shame in battling to work them out.
The way Malinga ripped through the top order must have caused some concern in the New Zealand camp. They tend to struggle against raw pace at the Basin Reserve, most notably when they collapsed against Pakistan and Shoaib Akhtar two years ago.
If this test finishes early, I certainly won't feel cheated but then again it would be nice to have some cricket to watch on days four and five.
