KEY POINTS:
Iain O'Brien launched a ball high over the imaginary long on boundary during a net session in Napier this week.
He'd got it out of the meat of the bat. Seventy metres away, Jamie How looked up and spotted O'Brien's blow. He turned, sprinted 15 metres away from the nets, dived and caught the ball in what would have been a top contender for catch of this or any season. Sadly, it will never show up in a catch-of-the-summer competition or a highlights package. His teammates whooped and applauded.
He then rejoined fielding coach Travis Wilson having offered a brief but spectacular example of how New Zealand's outfielding has stepped up this season.
How much of the improvement this summer is down to the former Atlanta Braves baseball player only the players really know.
But clearly Wilson has made an imprint. During the England series, New Zealand have achieved seven run outs, most down to exerting pressure by stopping easy singles inside the circle, feeding off the anxiety of England's batsmen to get the board moving.
They are hitting the stumps more often than in many a year. Daniel Vettori's direct hit from wide mid-on to dismiss Phil Mustard at Eden Park was no fluke.
So how did a former New Zealand softball player from Christchurch, after eight years trying to crack the Major League in the United States, wind up with the national cricket squad?
An email from former New Zealand Cricket high performance manager Ric Charlesworth in mid-2006 when he was playing softball in New York got things moving. Charlesworth was on the lookout for specialist coaches and had been talking to successful Black Sox coach Don Tricker who had offered Wilson's name.
He was contracted for work with the national side during Twenty20 and ODI series, and also divides his time around the provinces. Wilson has also been working with the under-19 team before this week's World Cup in Malaysia, and is off to help the New Zealand women's team in Christchurch next week.
"I'm really enjoying it. It is my first foray into coaching and getting thrown into the Black Caps I wasn't too sure what to expect."
Coming from a sport where accurate fielding, with hard, eagle-eyed throwing is paramount, what were his first impressions?
"The first thing I noticed was the throwing. I thought 'goodness gracious'. I'm generalising, but the throwing arms weren't that strong and the reason was they didn't throw often enough. A guy would throw three or four minutes at 20-30m distance and that'll be his training throwing.
"I came from a background where you'd throw 10-15 minutes every day over a maximum distance, to build strength into the arm. I'd watch the guys bowl to get into shape and have certain workloads. So why were their no throwing workloads?"
He arrived at a time of average performances. New Zealand weren't fielding well, were dropping catches in Australia and one good effort was followed by a couple of ordinary ones.
But hard work is paying off. Wilson, 30, had always enjoyed watching cricket, he'd played the odd game and knew in technical terms, take off the baseball glove and the fielding basics in the two sports were exactly the same.
"You've got to get into good athletic position, and have balance. I cringe when I see guys throw off balance. You're just asking for trouble injury-wise.
"Take a split second longer, get set and give yourself a good opportunity to hit the stumps instead of coming in, diving and throwing something that misses by 10 feet when you never really had a chance to hit."
And Wilson insists any cricketer can be helped to lengthen his throw and become an asset in the field. "Take Chris Martin. Okay he's getting towards the end of his career but that doesn't mean you can't teach them something. There hasn't been a guy I've looked at and thought 'there's nothing I can do or say to help this guy a little bit'.
"If you can come in and bowl 120-130km/h, there's no reason you can't throw the ball 60m. You just have to get the technique and realise it's not just the arm that throws the ball, but the legs and every part of your body puts something into it."
Wilson, whose current contract expires at the end of next month, is enjoying see the fruits of his work.
"Seeing people like Ross Taylor and Jamie How diving round stopping runs, creating run outs ... instead of going out for 50 overs and trying not to make a mistake. They have the ability to save 15 or 20 runs.
"And I don't care whether they've got 150 or gone out first ball, you don't carry your batting in to the field.
"Fielding to the punter in the stands is a nice catch or good run out. To me there's so much more going on."
