Mark Richardson: All in a spin and loving every minute of it

Grant Elliott and Luke Ronchi after their record partnership. Photo / PHOTOSPORT

Isn't it just going swimmingly with the Black Caps? It's going too well, actually, and it's making me nervous.

At the toss on Friday, I asked skipper Brendon McCullum if he feels he's ticked all the boxes in the past few games and he replied that, no, they still had a few to go.

That may be the case but plenty of areas have been covered off so far.

• Bowling a team out on a helpful pitch; check.

• Getting a flying start; check.

• Recovering from a poor start; check.

• Chasing down a small total; check.

• Chasing down a big total; check.

• Setting a big total; check.

• Early wickets; check.

• Late wickets; check.

• Creating a little history along the way; check.

• A contribution from everyone at some stage; check.

It all sounds a little too good to be true for my liking. My fatalistic brain does not deal well with this scenario. Is it really possible these guys are the real deal?

If I was some jingoistic Australian commentator, I would be lapping this up right now. I would be frothing at the mouth as I force the greatness of my team upon the world - but I am a New Zealander.

Perhaps it's time to scuff the pitches up a little. The Sri Lankans can be dealt with when the ball is moving in the air and off the seam, and right now the Black Caps are out-batting a team that includes the greatness of Dilshan, Sangakkara and Jayawardene.

Maybe the second-day nature of the University Oval pitch will slow up and turn, allowing the Sri Lankans to play the full quota of spin. Maybe this is one of the major boxes so far unticked.

Can the Black Caps dominate spin and can they balance the team to allow both Nathan McCullum and Daniel Vettori to play? Don't forget New Zealand were stalled by the Sri Lankan spinners in the only ODI they've lost in this series.

In February in New Zealand, with the technology and knowledge available to groundstaff these days, you can expect wickets that are rock hard with an even covering of grass.

Australia can at times produce turning wickets, so the Black Caps need to keep that in mind. But right now, they should really be setting themselves up for what home will offer, and that will more than likely be wickets with even pace and bounce.

So for the final two games, it would nice if Sri Lanka could lift their game a bit or if Lasith Malinga could get himself right. He would make a big difference to the Sri Lankan bowling and up the challenge significantly.

If New Zealand breeze through the next few games, I don't know if that is really going to help. Now is not the time to experiment too much for the sake of it because it's all getting a bit close to our World Cup opener on February 14.

I don't want to say 'bring on the South Africans', because Glenn McGrath once said that to us when we were the prelude to a Proteas tour of Australia, and we responded by spanking them out of their own World Series.

But I can't quite help thinking that the warm-up against South Africa and their excellent bowling attack just before the tournament opener could be the real acid test of just how well this team has progressed.