No matter whose side you were on, you have to admit the limited-overs' legs of the series between India and South Africa looked like a lot of fun. From a distance it felt like cricket had come to life for both teams. They pushed each other and then pulled away, took the packed crowds through a party atmosphere of ups and downs and played with a passion that is usually reserved for the real stuff. The stuff that's coming.
The Test series is where things get serious. There is more at stake than just rankings' points, there is reputation. India have built a fortress at home, losing only one Test series on their own turf in the last ten years; South Africa are road warriors and are in their ninth year of not being beaten on the road. These are the kinds of feats eras are built on.
As though the schedule is serving as a reminder of the shift in mood, the action has moved from the shower of sound that is the Wankhede to a sanctum of sport, the Brabourne. The Wankhede is the India I have come to know in my decade of visiting the country, bullish and brash like Ravi Shastri's six sixes in an over in a first-class match; the Brabourne is the kind of India my father told me about, refined and regal with cherry-coloured wooden tables and chairs, a stained-glass skylight and club members lunching in suits and ties.
There are only 750 metres between the two venues but South Africa chose to make a 1200km round-trip to Goa to get from once to the other, probably so the physical shift could mimic the mental one. In the beach-side state, they put their feet up and switched their minds off. They spent two days as tourists, and visited the second-oldest church, although Dale Steyn wondered out loud (read: on Twitter) why they didn't get to the oldest, and they transitioned from the frenetic pace of the last fortnight or so into the more considered clip a Test series demands.
In personnel terms, South Africa's more serious statesmen have arrived. Temba Bavuma, Simon Harmer, Vernon Philander, Dane Piedt and Dane Vilas are entirely different characters to David Miller, Quinton de Kock, Kyle Abbott, Farhaan Behardien and Aaron Phangiso. Speak to the former group and you will be listening to cricket chat for the learned soul, speak to the latter and you will more than likely have a laugh too.
That's why it seems only sensible that Vilas was retained in the Test squad and de Kock, despite a comeback of confidence and class in ODIs, made to go back to the domestic game to earn his spot. South Africa want to build a Test squad on maturity and Vilas offers that at the moment. He knows that moment won't last forever, especially with de Kock nipping at his heels, and he is determined to seize it. He was last man out of the nets at the Brabourne on Thursday and could well be the first back in them ahead of the warm-up match on Friday.
Vilas is not the only one playing for a long-term future. Imran Tahir has been given a last chance to prove he belongs at this level, Philander will be looking over his shoulder as 20-year-old tearaway Kagiso Rabada gains on him, and Stiaan van Zyl probably needs a few more solid knocks to successfully convert from a No.3 to an opener and if he can do it in India, all the better.
Van Zyl knows the importance of this tour for him. He has said all the right things, that, "India will be up for the challenge", that the pitches will be challenging because they are so unlike what he has at home - "a lot slower and spin a lot" - and that he will call on past experience such as his 96 for South Africa A in an unofficial Test against India A earlier this year for motivation.
Talk amounts to very little in this game, which may be why van Zyl's words were so sparse. Action is everything. The shorter formats already proved that; the longer one should be even better.