The worst thing you could do after these tri-series games is worry yourself with the result. That applies win or lose and after a win over Ireland and now Bangladesh, the headlines have been the same as the Blackcaps have won fairly easily. Win or lose, this simply isn't the team that will take part in the Champions Trophy so how can we get excited (or disappointed) about these results?

Just keep that in mind as you follow this tri-series because we've seen two convincing wins for Aotearoa, don't let false confidence over-take context and realism. 

After those two convincing wins, we can kinda see how Mike Hesson and Kane Williamson are thinking in terms of their batting line up. Tom Latham and Luke Ronchi (wk) opening, George Worker holding Williamson's spot at No.3, then Ross Taylor, Neil Broom and Jimmy Neesham. Latham hit 54 (84.37sr) in a typically steady innings with Neesham scoring 52 (108.33sr) down at No.6 as the major knocks, followed by another handy innings from Neil Broom.

Broom hit 48 (73.84sr) to hold the innings together and with all three teams having played two games, Broom leads the run-scoring with 127 runs @ 63.50avg/99.21sr. I'm super cautious about this though, just as I'm super cautious about the Blackcaps in general, as Broom only averages over 25 against Ireland and Bangladesh. That means that against better teams, Broom isn't so good and at the Champions Trophy there six teams who Broom has struggled to score any runs against.

The weirdest bit for me though is still what's going to happen with Luke Ronchi. Opening with Latham and wicket-keeping has yielded scores of 27 and 37, it's his strike-rate across those two innings that adds the funk though as he has the highest strike-rate of any batsman in this tri-series to score over 30 runs (120.75sr). I view that as a direct product of Ronchi doing Martin Guptill's job and in the past, Latham has enjoyed success as an ODI batsmen with Guptill at the other end; Guppy goes bang, Latham anchors. 

Obviously Guptill will open in the CT, so what's going to happen to Ronchi ... or Latham? This is an example of how Lesson pin themselves into weird corners where they have very limited options, or many options that just don't make much sense. 

Assuming Ronchi is viewed as the No.1 wicket-keeper - which we have to assume is that case because that's how the team has been selected in these first two games - if Guptill replaces Ronchi at the top of the order, then Ronchi would need to slide down the order. Neesham's batting at No.6 and Colin Munro has been batting at No.7, so perhaps Munro could make way but then Ronchi is filling a spot that will likely need to be left free for a bowler or Corey Anderson.

Unless Latham spends time as wicket-keeper in this tri-series, giving him the gloves when Guppy returns for the CT would epitomise how weird Lesson are. At this stage Ronchi is the wicket-keeper and that's all good as long as there is clarity in the plan, but we've got no idea where Ronchi is going to bat, unless Guptill steps in for Latham. That would also be weird because Ronchi is practicing his role as an opening-slogger in this tri-series, a role he may not play at the CT.

While two of Aotearoa's best 50-over bowlers aren't playing (Neil Wagner and Matt Henry), Seth Rance and Hamish Bennett are. Rance went without a wicket (7.33rpo) and Bennett did manage to do the bowling equivalent of Broom's batting as he hurried up Bangladesh's batsmen; great, try doing that to the world's best batsmen.

Bennett replaced Scott Kuggeleijn for this game and I don't think it's a coincidence that they each took 3 wickets with a similar style of bowling, against Ireland and Bangladesh. 

I'm still puzzled by these bowling decisions. On the surface this looks like a mix between the Blackcaps and Aotearoa 'A' but you've really got to wonder about the long-term benefit of getting Rance and Bennett involved. I still think Wagner has a lot to offer in ODI cricket for starters, although the real joy would have came in taking a young bowling attack to Ireland to gain a level of international experience. 

You're convinced that Bennett will play another ODI for Aotearoa after the CT? I'm definitely not and the same goes for Rance, who dominates the domestic cricuit but has 1 wicket from 17.3 overs @ 110avg/6.28rpo against Ireland and Bangladesh. This gets even weirder when you ponder that bowlers who could contribute to the Blackcaps ahead of the next World Cup, are no where to be seen.

The only bowler from this Bangladesh game who will play in the CT was Mitchell Santner, with the glorious all-round abilities of Jimmy Neesham also chipping in with 2 wickets @ 7.55rpo. Santner was tight as usual and Bangladesh handled his work much better than Ireland as you'd expect, while Neesham also stuck to his script with a few key wickets and a hefty rpo.

Ish Sodhi has played both games and after taking 2/40 @4rpo, he has 3 wkts @ 26.66avg/4.44rpo. As I stated above, we can't go round celebrating success, runs and bowling figures against Ireland and Bangladesh in nothing more the a warm up tournament, so I won't go overboard on Sodhi's work. And any way, it doesn't matter because Sodhi won't be at the CT.

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