Two games and two loss for Aotearoa 'A' in their 50-over series against Pakistan A, although as per usual it's the intricacies and personnel decisions that we're zoning in on. The only super notable performance from the kiwis was BJ Watling's 75 as he took control and yanked Aotearoa to the 200-run mark, while Todd Astle hit 40 and Will Young chimed in with 39.

Aotearoa put up 224, all out and Pakistan chased it down with an over and 5 wickets to spare. No kiwi bowler took more than 1w; Scott Kuggeleijn, Logan van Beek, Kyle Jamieson and Todd Astle took a wicket each. Also of note with the bowling performance is the number of extras conceded, or more specifically the number of wides as they conceded 6 wides in game one, followed by 12 wides in game two.

17 wides all up and van Beek's conceded 4 in each game. Kuggeleijn went hard with his opportunity in the second game though, conceding 5 wides, which was the same number of wides conceded by Pakistan in game two. Not great.

Game One

Phillips-Worker-Young-Blundell-Watling-Anderson-Astle-Ravindra-van Beek-Ferguson-Tickner.

Game Two

Phillips-Worker-Young-Watling-Bruce-Anderson-Astle-Ravindra-Kuggeleijn-Jamieson-van Beek.

In terms of team changes, Tom Blundell made way for Tom Bruce and then with the ball, in came Kuggeleijn and Jamieson, while Lockie Ferguson and Blair Tickner dropped out. Blundell's absence allow Watling to move from #5 to #4 in the batting line up, with Bruce coming in at #5 and in all three of the new players put in solid shifts; Bruce hit 20 off 24, while Kuggeleijn and Jamieson took a wicket each and both conceded 4.20rpo.

Watling hit the bulk of his overall runs in this innings, which was good enough to put him in 2nd in run-scoring for the A gang. Astle's the best so far, with a 51 and 40 batting in the middle order and Will Young sits in third, with back to back 40s. After dominating in the T20 series, Glenn Phillips has 0 runs from 2inns in the 50-over series and this means that between Phillips and George Worker, the opening combo has scored 27 runs in two games.

I'm still fascinated by Rachin Ravindra's tour to United Arab Emirates and the young Wellingtonian again came in down the order to score 6 off 9, following on from 11 off 8. The bowling is what I'm really interested in though as he has clearly been selected for his spin bowling, which has resulted in no wickets through 14 overs @ 6rpo. That essentially means that Ravindra has been a non factor with the ball and the only other kiwi bowlers who haven't taken a wicket after two games are Blair Tickner (four-game wicket-less streak) and Phillips who has only bowled 2 overs.

That is breeding a low key yarn around Tickner and Ravindra not quite snapping up their opportunity. Obviously this could change for either of the young bowlers in the third game, however so far Tickner hasn't been able to kick on from his dominant summer in Aotearoa and Ravindra hasn't performed as one would hope for someone who has been fast-tracked into the A system.

Of course, this is the whole point of bringing Ravindra on tour and he'll be better for the experience. Tickner's bowling in new conditions as well, so there is no need to be overly critical, it's more just a weird scenario where the two freshest bowlers haven't been effective.

The third 50-over game is tomorrow, offering a quick turn-around and an opportunity to right wrongs. With the series lost, which of the kiwis stands up to demand attention in the final game will be super interesting and this could also come via a re-shuffled team, so there'll be plenty to suss out in the remaining fixture.

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Peace and love 27.