Mussey moves on up; Hads impresses with the bat again and we win - the world makes sense again.

In the absence of Pup, Mussey moved up to number 4 today. It wasn't that successful, but it was only a temporary measure - we should be seeing Tasmanian George Bailey in the side for the next match, which I'm excited about because I'm a huge Jimmy Stewart fan - and it is always good to experiment like that. We have to be flexible. After all, it's only a matter of time before Rhianna breaks a fingernail and Punter has to rush home mid-tour as well.

 New Zealand, George - you're going to New Zealand. Stupid Tasmanian!

So I only got to see the batting, because the rest happened while I was asleep. I believe Punter won the toss and actually opted to bowl. He must have struggled to get that out. I didn't think the word "bowl" was in his vocabulary anywhere. Mitchy's figures look damn good again (this is getting too much now) and between him, Ry the Not Jimmeh and Twatto the Kiwis were limted to 245.

The batting started so well. Not that it ended badly, but didn't that last 10 runs take an age to come? I was actually starting to worry, but then I do have a habit of doing that. Twatto went for 15, but Ponting and Hads kicked some serious arse. Hads hit a handful of fine 6s for his 110, the joy of which was tripled by two things:

1. at least a couple of them came off Fatty Styris
2. we got to hear the local commentators saying "that's a sex" several times (music to any pisstaking Aussie's ears).

The Muss may not have got past 9, but his wicket brought Bloody Vic White in and he was brimming with confidence, as ever. He wasted hardly any time getting going and it was him and Adam Voges who brought the game home. It was a slow finish, but a pretty fine batting performance all round.

I have but one more thing to say ... I still adore Daniel Vettori.

For now.