Martin Devlin: We need to talk - The 'encouraging' signs from the Black Caps loss to India in Napier

Accentuate the positive!

I was put on the spot yesterday by Mike Yardley on NewstalkZB, who asked me to say something positive about the Black Caps1-day loss in Napier.

Um, "McLean Park looked lovely" I spluttered. Because, seriously, apart from the obvious cliches about "getting a good wake-up call" what else was there to say?

It was one of those awful 50-over matches that was over after the first 15. Yet thinking about it again overnight I've decided there are in fact many encouraging signs from that performance, in fact, a full team of 11.

1. There's always another game tomorrow. And there actually is!

2. We can't bat that badly again. But if you believe that you'll also believe that historically and statistically we have NEVER lost a 5-match series vs India when the first game is played at McLean Park in 2019. Think about it...

3. And McLean Park did look lovely...

4. And it's new multi-million drainage system did work perfectly. Seriously. Did you notice how quickly the field drained?

5. AND because of McLean Park and its sunstrike, we have now written ourselves into cricket history as the only venue in the world where play stops not because of bad light, but because of beautiful weather.

6. We won the toss. Now I'm not being silly here, this is in fact very important because Kane never wins the toss. To be fair Kohli called it wrong, but when you're clutching at straws...

7. And speaking of Virat, he goes home on Monday. Phew.

8. It gave the ground announcer, the Moooozik Dee-Jay, the chance to play the heme
from MASH after every easy New Zealand wicket that fell. This was the first time he'd been able to do that since the final 1-dayer vs Sri Lanka a week before.

9. If we win tomorrow then suddenly that loss won't mean as much and if we win the series then it won't matter much at all.

10. It was India we lost to, not Australia.

11. As everyone who loves their cricket knows, if you're relying on #11 to do anything then we're pretty much well and truly stuffed.