After two ODI's against Zimbabwe, I don't think it's too crazy to say that the first ODI was an anomaly, an upset win. The second ODI saw Tom Latham and Martin Guptill chase down Zimbabwe's 235 with ease, with such ease that the stat-lovers are creaming their undies today.

Me? I'm not so fussed about that, nor do I find myself too quick to get overly excited by the 10 wicket win in the second ODI. I find it hard to call this a 'second string' BLACKCAPS team when three of our top four batsmen are present in the top order - Martin Guptill, Kane Williamson and Ross Taylor while Tom Latham is our Test opener and a suitable replacement for Brendon McCullum.

With that, I have come to split the team into batsmen and bowlers. Now, the bowling group definitely is where we're seeing the development and depth of the BLACKCAPS tested. Without our premier bowlers, Zim were able to get themselves out of a spot of bother (146/8 - big shout to Sikandar Raza) in the second ODI and were able to punish a horrible lack of consistency from the BLACKCAPS bowlers in the first ODI. 

I would expect our batting line-up to chase down anything Zimbabwe score as their bowlers understandably aren't quite in the upper echelon. Hence the 10 wicket win doesn't come as much of a surprise and given that the Guptill, Latham and Taylor have all scored hundreds while Williamson scored 97 in two games, should show that our batsmen are far better than their bowlers.

The difference between the two ODI's and the most intriguing aspect of this whole African tour, was/are the bowlers. Improvements were made between the first and second ODI's, but we still saw a worrying lack of control where our bowlers couldn't consistently deliver enough deliveries in probing areas. The first ODI saw our bowlers venture wide, then short, then too straight or too full and it felt as though they were constantly chasing, over-compensating for their last delivery with far too many balls that deserved to be punished served on a platter.

To overreact and rip on the likes of Matt Henry and Mitchell McClenaghan, wouldn't be right as this is a tour that has come after a wee break and the best preparation they got leading into this Zim series was a few games against a club team. They will get better, I'm sure of that but Henry has seen, what appears to be his natural length which is short-of-a-good-length punished numerous times while McClenaghan did manage to produce an encouraging, fiery spell early in the second ODI but still lacks control. 

There's nothing to be overly concerned about though, as conditions haven't helped the seamers and these games do allow them some time to nail their plans and execution ahead of the series against South Africa. If the entire seam bowling unit roll out similar performances against South Africa, things won't end up too well.

We've got to remember that there is no senior figure in this seam bowling group, unlike the spin crew. Nathan McCullum has done what he's always done but has benefited from a bit of turn, which when combined with his control and accuracy always gives him a chance, or at the very least, makes him hard to dominate.

The conversations between McCullum and Ish Sodhi would be interesting, I'd assume that Sodhi is enjoying having someone with such experience to bounce ideas off and help iron out a few issues. I'll be very interested to see how Sodhi bowls in the third ODI and I'm pretty gutted that Sodhi hasn't been given the chance to play in South Africa and continue to learn the craft of bowling leg-spin in limited overs cricket. It's a different beast to Test's.

In the first ODI, Sodhi dropped short and ventured wide far too often but he bounced back in the second ODI with a far tighter line zoning in on off-stump to both righties and lefties. Any time a leggy attacks the stumps consistently, with confidence, they'll be in the mix. Here's two of Sodhi's wickets from the second ODI (3/38 off 10) which pitch in a similar area, but produce two different types of dismissal with the LBW sliding on. Such is life when you're a leggy attacking the stumps...

I am also very intrigued by the all-rounder situation, with no Corey Anderson not on this tour. Grant Elliot has done a nice job with 43 in the first ODI and 2/27 off six overs in the second, which served me up this question - do we need to carry another all-rounder in Neesham or Colin Munro? Given that we are lacking some potency with our seamers (sure - not helpful tracks etc) I'd love to see Ben Wheeler or Adam Milne by dished up an opportunity to prove their worth, especially in Zim where they have to work harder for wickets.

The flipside to that is while I'd like to see another young seamer be played, I also want to see Munro and Neesham get more game time. But as I pointed out earlier, there's a severe lack of experience and I can understand why Elliot needs to play, so I imagine we'll see Munro get given another chance seeing as Latham and Guppy didn't give him a chance to bat.

Forget the hyperbole and mind-boggling numbers from the second ODI (and this year), this last ODI is about our bowlers and whether they can step up to the plate. We already knew that our batsmen would be better than Zim's bowlers and with Mike Hesson taking a young group of bowlers, this was always going to be about developing the bowlers. A must-win third ODI presents a good opportunity to test Henry, McClenaghan and Sodhi, while also testing Neesham should he play/a third seamer.