A weekend of two halves, class shone through on the day, New Zealand was beaten by a better team. Whatever, the Black Caps finally put together a couple of decent performances over the course of their just completed one-day series with South Africa, but, still, they cannot actually win a series.
Even after Friday's victory in the 2nd ODI, just New Zealand's second against South Africa in the republic, there was a cacophony of criticism from former New Zealand players talking about the Black Caps' stagnation.
Martin Crowe blames biomechanics, whatever that is, although that's probably his point. Andrew Jones cited a lack of confidence and Steve Rixon, former Australian wicket-keeper and New Zealand coach, thinks that John Bracewell has done his dash.
One positive New Zealand can take from the one-day series though is the emergence of unlikely heroes in Kyle Mills, Jamie How and Mathew Sinclair.
Were it not for a brace (yes, pun intended) of retirements, How and Sinclair would still be plying their trade in front of what have actually been, amazingly, reasonable, yet still tiny, State Championship crowds.
Were Shane Bond fit, Kyle Mills would be very much what Ewen Chatfield was to Richard Hadlee. However, in the absence of the Canterbury seamer, Mills stepped up to claim man-of-the-series honours.
But, a two-one loss is disappointing. The second one-dayer was as complete a one-day performance as you could wish to see. With Jacob Oram back in the team, the Black Caps had a balanced bowling line-up that restricted South Africa to 209.
Mills and a fiery Mark Gillespie took three wickets each, while Oram and the spin-twins, Daniel Vettori and Jetan Patel, bowled tightly.
New Zealand took under 39 overs to knock the runs of thanks to a bright and breezy innings by opener Brendon McCullum and a classy innings from How.
How has come in for much attempted ridicule from the South African crowds. Witness any number of "witty" banners, but he has looked a lot, dare it be said, like Crowe.
He has displayed a tight technique against some excellent fast bowling and has taken advantage of loose balls and unfurled his pulls and straight drives with great effect.
In the 3rd game though, How became a victim of a dwindling New Zealand run rate. Only Sinclair really looked at ease, although Scott Styris showed some grit.
Sinclair's renaissance bodes well for the tests ahead and it is not hard to envisage him and How becoming yet another opening pair at some stage in the summer, with the middle order being a closed shop, especially with the anticipated return from injury of Peter Fulton.
While Vettori blamed the 3rd ODI defeat on one man, Herschelle Gibbs, it was hard to look beyond the inconsistency of New Zealand's bowlers and the inability of batsmen to turn starts into good scores against quality fast bowling.
The Chappell-Hadlee series now awaits, and a hungry Australian side will be looking for revenge after last season's defeat. There were enough signs in South Africa to suggest that at least New Zealand won't surrender without a fight.
2nd ODI: South Africa 209/9 (M. Boucher 48, S. Pollock 52, K. Mills 8-1-43-3, M. Gillespie 10-1-55-3, J. Oram 10-1-31-1, J. Patel 10-0-39-1, D. Vettori 10-1-29-1) lost to New Zealand 210/3 (B. McCullum 81, J. How 74) by 7 wickets.
3rd ODI: New Zealand 238/8 (S. Styris 60, M. Sinclair 73) lost to South Africa 242/5 (G. Smith 51, H. Gibbs 119, D. Vettori 10-1-33-3) by 5 wickets.
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