Fast forward five years and I can say with confidence the only thing there's a chance I'll remember outside this test series is Ross Taylor's one-legged ODI century. That's the power of the longest and greatest form of the game.
3. Williamson is the most even-keeled sportsman I have met. Sometimes it feels like he is going to absurd lengths to utter the most benign commentary on the game, but having sat down with him to help him write a "How To" book for kids (Cricket with Kane Williamson, available in all good book stores), I quickly understood that is how he operates.
He doesn't throw out bon mots and hot takes because he doesn't see the game as a series of flashpoints as much as he sees it as an ongoing process of betterment. It is not his job to fill column inches or provide soundbites, but it is his job to score runs and lead his side adroitly.
So take it as read that he is really hot under the collar when he says: "We've played four tests this year, I think there's a little bit of frustration, guys want to play more test cricket… the team loves playing test cricket."
For Williamson, that's almost a call to arms.
4. New Zealand's window of test strength is closing, but not alarmingly so. The average age of the 12 players used by New Zealand in this two-match series was 29, with Taylor the oldest at 34 and Ish Sodhi the youngest at 25. That in itself is not concerning, but the lack of promising batsmen behind them at first-class level is.
With one round of the Plunket Shield to go, four of the top five run scorers were so far from the national selectors' radars they didn't register a blip: Michael Papps, age 38, Greg Hay, 33, Luke Woodcock, 36, and Jesse Ryder, 33. Only Tim Seifert, 23, has potentially a lot of international cricket in front of him.
Indications are Taylor could call it quits after the World Cup next year. Jeet Raval ended the summer looking like he was being operated by remote control. There are opportunities there for someone good enough and hungry enough but at the moment the next level are making the selectors' jobs frustratingly easy.
5. Tim Southee, Trent Boult and Wagner: Are they New Zealand's greatest three-pronged pace attack? Discuss at your leisure, but for consistency, longevity and contrasting yet complementary skills, I haven't seen a better trio.
As it is, they stand, in order, fourth, sixth and eight on New Zealand's test wicket-taking list. By the end of next summer, fitness permitting, they will probably be third, fourth and seventh.
6. It must be frustrating waiting in line. As opposed to the wafer thin batting and spin bowling stocks, New Zealand has genuine pace bowling options. The ever-unlucky Matt Henry has Doug Bracewell, Lockie Ferguson and probably Scott Kuggeleijn for company as those who could do a fine job at the highest level if called upon.
7. Sodhi needs to develop a stock ball capable of getting good players out if he is to succeed at test level in New Zealand conditions. At the moment his leggie hasn't enough on it to trouble good players, so they can sit on his variations and pick off his bad balls.
At the start of the series against England there was widespread belief that Todd Astle was preferred solely because he shortened the tail with his capable batting. As it turns out, he is a more effective bowler.
8. For a guy with such a simple approach to cricket and with such an uncomplicated batting and bowling technique, Colin de Grandhomme comes close to defying explanation.
He scored 105, 58, 22, 29, 72 and 45 on his six trips to the crease this summer. He was New Zealand's most consistent batsman.
He chipped in with four wickets each against the West Indies and England and although his bowling can appear military, he has an average that matches Southee and Wagner (albeit with a considerably smaller sample size and he has yet to bowl overseas).
9. Remember Tom Blundell?
10. There has been a lot of talk about behaviour of the Australians, including from the general direction of, um, me. New Zealand, on the other hand, are international cricket's white knights, winning admirers and the odd game to boot with an almost Corinthian approach*.
This is a good thing, but NZ Cricket would do well to remind those at the level below of that.
Some of the behaviour during the domestic season has been appalling. There have been too many teapots and bat smashes and general malingering at the crease from batsmen who have been given out.
11. Hate to say it, but the next 12 months are going to be long and meh for cricket fans. We're faced with another inexplicable winter of inactivity, followed by a series against Pakistan in the atmosphere-free zone of the UAE, then a home summer of five tests against Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.
Don't be surprised if some smart-aleck prunes a test off the Bangers and converts it to ODIs with a World Cup looming.
Memories, like the ones we gathered yesterday, will be harder to catch than water.
* There was an unintentionally hilarious moment in the final session yesterday when Ish Sodhi spooned one into the gully area that fell just safe. The fielder chased and threw on the turn as the batsmen ran one. The ball evaded everyone and was heading into the vacant mid-on area as one of their many close-in fielders gave chase. There was a bona fide chance of an overthrow had Wagner wanted one but Sodhi instead dropped his bat on the ball to stop it, picked it up and passed it to the startled fielder.
THE WEEK IN MEDIA ...
There's probably a movie starring Vince Vaughn and Jennifer Aniston in this cute piece from the Mercury News.
This podcast, part of Malcolm Gladwell's mind-bending Revisionist History series will make you rethink not only free-throw shooting, but many techniques in sport we assume to be "the right way" without critically analysing them.
I would continue to argue that ball-tampering was just a handy crowbar used to break into the dark heart of Australian cricket, but nevertheless this Jarrod Kimber piece brilliantly exposes the culpability of cricket administrators in the actual act of cheating.
