As we all wonder about the apparent woes of a couple kiwi batsmen, the lasting thought from the Blackcaps' defeat at the hands of South Africa in Wellington was about our bowling attack. The Blackcaps have obviously had their batting pride dented many, many times before but what made this kinda strange was that this South African bowling attack doesn't have no Dale Steyn, no Morne Morkel and no Vernon Philander.

Those blokes are three of the best seamers in modern times and have dined out on not only their natural gifts, also their relentlessness in executing plans. We know that Kagiso Rabada will eventually move into that bracket of quality - Aotearoa doesn't have a youngin' who is close to Rabada in that regard - although the general vibe of this current South African attack just doesn't resemble their brutal collection of recent years.

Hear we are, admiring that South African attack for dismissing the Blackcaps for 112 with no express pace, no freakish height; just a whole lot of bowling that resembled that of Philandar. South Africa consistently plugged a line just outside off-stump and AB de Villiers set fields accordingly, everyone knew their job and everyone executed. The most telling collection of numbers from this game was the spread of wickets throughout the South African bowling attack as Rabada, Wayne Parnell and Andile Phehlukwayo took 2 wickets each, Dwaine Pretorius took 3 and Imran Tahir took 1 wicket. This was about as comprehensive bowling display from an ODI attack as you'll see.

Could the kiwis' bowling attack do something similar? I'm not convinced and while anything can happen when Tim Southee and Trent Boult are swinging the ball around corners, what's been lacking for a while now in ODI and Test cricket has been the ability to consistently hit probing areas, buying wickets through pressure.

Let's be honest here folks: if South Africa's bowlers could make life extremely difficult for Kane Williamson and Ross Taylor, then the other batsmen are most likely going to struggle. Williamson scored 23 at a strike-rate of 57.50 and Taylor scored 18 at 45sr. Our two best batsmen, known for their ability to tick the score over even though they may not be blasting boundaries every where.

The changes to the Blackcaps squad for the remainder of the series really aren't all that interesting. Martin Guptill comes back and while it's a welcome sight, Guptill's return will more than likely come at Tom Latham's expense and I'm curious to know if the decision-makers are aware that Latham's best ODI knocks have come with Guptill as his opening partner. Latham's blatantly out of form and I'll keep defending his place as an opener/wicket-keeper until those struggles continue with Guppy down the other end.

If Latham is cut, Luke Ronchi will slot into the middle order. And if Ronchi's getting another opportunity then there's hope for all the battlers out there chasing an ex-girlfriend. Sure, Ronchi will likely hit 40 off 20 balls, win the game and be celebrated as he's done previously. Then we'll sit through another lean patch from Ronchi through the Champions Trophy and enjoy another full-circle trip.

Jeetan Patel's back. The thinking behind this makes sense as Patel does a fine job in England through his Kiwi County Tour work and the Champions Trophy is in England after all. Why wasn't Patel initially selected then? What's the point in picking Ish Sodhi, only to bring in another spinner and once again fiddle with things that don't really need fiddlin'. Sodhi was dropped for Lockie Ferguson in the last game and Ferguson took 1/71 @ 7.10rpo.

While South Africa can sit on Mitchell Santner as many teams sat on Daniel Vettori (allowing him to role through his 10 overs for 3.5-4.5rpo), Sodhi can attack and enjoy the fruits of Santner's labour. Despite what Patel has done on the Kiwi County Tour for many years now, Patel isn't winning you an ODI game and Patel won't dominate an international tournament.

Of course Patel might not play these remaining ODI games, which would be even more confusing.

How about Neil Broom, the Bangladesh bully: 8 (vs Aus), 20 (vs ND), 2, 2, 0 (vs SA).

Dean Brownlie's not exactly making the most of his opportunity with Guppy out either: 10 (vs Otago), 5 (vs CD), 31, 34, 2 (vs SA).

Props to Colin de Grandhomme for emerging as the best player from this super-stink Blackcaps performance. Is what CDG offers this Blackcaps team really sustainable through to and throughout the Champions Trophy?

Is anyone there to put pressure on Southee or Boult? Having them as automatic selections isn't healthy and we need bowlers who demand selection to keep Southee, then Boult, on their toes.

To be honest, the Blackcaps ODI team is a big pile of confusion and it's a confusion we are blind to when they win games against weaker opposition or wrangle a close victory away from a stronger opponent who isn't at their best. All this confusion causes a scrambled brain and mate, I've gone beyond that to the point where now I just enjoy it and poke fun at it.