Although there is little relevance between the Blackcaps T20 performance against South Africa and their ODI series, it was telling that the drama surrounding the Blackcaps this week influence their poor performance. As I watched the kiwi batsmen do little in the way of offering any sort of defence, let alone hitting enough boundaries to be competitive, I bemoaned the lack of a classy batsman.

I dunno, just someone like Ross Taylor. Someone who can use his experience and skill to assess the situation and then execute what needs to be done to put his team in the best position for a brutal assault later in the innings. Wildly swinging your bat on your first ball, or simply being incapable of playing a forward-defensive shot are signs of blokes who are restricted in their all-round batsmanship.

All we have heard about from Gavin Larsen and Mike Hesson centres around power in their batting line up and on paper, that Blackcaps batting line up oozed power. When that batting line up was called upon to chase down South Africa's total though, it looked as though the Blackcaps had too many hitters and not enough class.

Take one look at the blokes who scored South Africa's runs; Hashim Amla (62 @ 144.18sr), Faf du Plessis (36 @ 144sr), AB de Villiers (26 @ 152.94) and JP Duminy (29 @ 181.25sr). None of those blokes are what you'd called T20-sloggers, they are just really, really good batsmen in all formats who can hit boundaries. While South Africa (sans de Villiers who does what he wants) rolled out a top-five that would be in their strongest Test team, the Blackcaps appear to be heading in the opposite direction in selecting hitters.

South Africa keep it simple in selecting their best players, Aotearoa try to be cute; South Africa win.

Chuck Ish Sodhi and Lockie Ferguson in that conversation as well. South Africa used some pace and bounce via Chris Morris, while Ferguson wasn't given a run on home turf. South Africa used their leg-spinner Imran Tahir (13.70avg/6.38rpo), while Sodhi (14.47avg/6.80rpo) was again left on the sidelines.

In the big scheme of things, none of this really matters. With the context of some weird decisions from Hesson/Larsen as the backdrop though, the strange decisions just keep on coming.

Now we move on to the first ODI (Sunday) and I suspect we'll see a fairly similar group used by South Africa. Kagiso Rabada and David Miller could work their way in, at the expense of Dane Paterson/Andile Phehlukwayo/Farhaan Behardien/Wayne Parnell. Point being that South Africa still have an excessively slick batting unit and will be led with the ball by Rabada, Morris and Tahir.

Luke Ronchi didn't exactly make much of a case to be selected in the ODI team and this presents an interesting battle as South Africa have the luxury of Quinton de Kock as their wicket-keeper/batsman. De Kock is my top wicket-keeper/batsman in the world and this gives South Africa many options, as the kiwis will have if Tom Latham wears the keeping gloves.

A key factor in selecting the team tomorrow should be; get as many bowling weapons in there as possible. That means playing Sodhi and Santner together, getting Ferguson back in to form seam-trio of Ferguson/Southee/Boult. While it's difficult to imagine the Blackcaps restricting South Africa to a score of 250 in Hamilton - or skittling them for less - that's what needs to happen and that requires an arsenal of attacking bowlers.

My team for tomorrow...

Brownlie, Latham (wk), Williamson, Taylor, Broom, Neesham, Santner, Sodhi, Southee, Boult, Ferguson.

The player who I will be watching closely tomorrow is Neil Broom. Having enjoyed a nice return to international cricket, Broom will face another stiff challenge and while he was impressive at Eden Park against Australia, Broom didn't look so slick in the third ODI in Hamilton. He's crucial because - like Taylor - Broom has the ability to handle any situation and he'll be required to accumulate and then whack it to all parts of Seddon Park.

South Africa will have plans for Broom and as he plays more internationals, any weakness in Broom's craft will be exposed. Whether Broom can adjust and maintain some success will not only be crucial to the result of this game/series, it'll also be interesting when pondering Broom's future in the Blackcaps with the Champions Trophy lurking.