Silly mainstream media guy wrote how Nicholls had proved all the haters wrong after dominating Pakistan and West Indies. Maybe chill until players perform against quality opposition.

Before moving on to Aotearoa's middle order woes (and thus the glorious return of batsman Santner), I quickly want to pick up where we left off with Mark Chapman.

As Kane Williamson was out injured for the second ODI, Chapman made his debut and batted #3 in place of Williamson. I found this weird because I don't think it's a good idea to put a guy making his debut in to bat at such a crucial position, especially when Chapman never batted #3 in the Ford Trophy this summer and someone like Henry Nicholls did that exact role for Canterbury (long yarn shortened).

For this third game which the Blackcaps narrowly lost to England, Chapman moved to number #4 in place of Ross Taylor. I have highlighted numerous examples of poor man-managed from Mike Hesson and his offsider chief selector, including Chapman batting #3 and we have the same issue in the following game. This time the poor man-management revolves around the newest guy in the team, being Mr Fix It.

The guy who is the least equipped to fill different ODI batting roles, has been asked to do exactly that in his first two games. Chapman has responded by scoring 1 (off 9 balls) and 8 (off 14), which at this stage isn't really his fault because he has been put in positions to fail.
Examples of poor man-management don't get much more blatant than this.

Not only does this limit how effective Chapman can be and perhaps mess with his confidence as a cricketer, it doesn't help the Blackcaps win games. Chapman has replaced Williamson and Taylor, two of our greatest batsmen ever and it's impossible to fill that run-scoring void for the Blackcaps. You can at least try, by putting more experienced batsmen in those key positions.

The Blackcaps have lost both these games, not exactly because Williamson and Taylor were absent but possibly because their absences have not been adequately absorbed.
Surely there is a better solution to plugging the Williamson/Taylor holes than putting the youngin' who is trying to figure out ODI cricket in those spots, surely.

Mitchell Santner has had a lovely series with the willows so far and 41 runs from him got the Blackcaps into a very handy position in this third game; after scores of 45* and 63*.

My initial ponderings about Santner came after the T20 tri-series as I expressed my opinion that I don't think Santner's overly good at scoring runs quickly - his main role batting down the order in limited overs cricket. What we have seen in this ODI series thus far is that when Santner has time, he is a delightful batsman.

Santner has come to the crease in the 42nd, 30th and 25th overs and has faced 27, 52 and 54 deliveries in each of his 3inns. His strike-rate in this series is 112.03 (Tim Southee is the only kiwi batsman with a higher strike-rate) and this solid strike-rate has come via Santner cashing in after laying some foundations. If Santner faces 15-20 deliveries, he will score runs afterwards and he's a legit batsman in the sense that he needs to get himself in - as opposed to blasters who whack from ball tahi.

The major concern here is that Santner is having to face so many deliveries. Wait, I want Santner to face more deliveries because that's when he's at his best and that's why putting him way down the order doesn't put his batting to best use (shout outs man-management).
Doesn't it just make more sense to put Santner ahead of Colin de Grandhomme? De Grandhomme is a whacker and Santner needs time, yet they are batting in the position that is better suited to the other guy.

Let me try again; the major concern here is that Santner is coming to the crease so damn early as a #8 batsman.

As for de Grandhomme, we need to be straight up about what he's good at in the same fashion that we all know what Colin Munro is good at. De Grandhomme smacks boundaries and that's dangerous, it's risky business - like Munro. The wise move would be to decrease that risk by putting de Grandhomme in a position where he is mostly batting in situations where boundaries are required.

This obviously relates to Santner, Chapman and poor man-management. Many of these players are being put in situations that don't suit their skills as cricketers, or at least giving them the best opportunity to perform.

Henry Nicholls has the least runs of any batsman in this series. Mark Wood also has 1 run, yet he's an England bowler who has played just one game and de Grandhomme 43 runs in 3inns. Tom Latham has been service-able with a key knock of 79 in support of Taylor's century, so not too many worries with Latham right now. Nicholls appears to be knee deep in a lean patch, borderline being exposed by England's ODI bowlers who are a fair bit better than West Indies and Pakistan.

Needing a win in the next game, what happens here will be funky. Does Nicholls get another chance or does Chapman slot into #6 if Taylor runs, in place of Nicholls? The pressure of the series being on the line means that the leniency given to players who are out of touch, decreases.

I view Chapman's best batting spots to be #5 or #6 and that's why I've been so vocal about him being used in the Williamson/Taylor slots. This could all come full circle if Nicholls should have been moved up to bat #3 (bump Latham up as well) as he's better equipped for that role than Chapman and then Nicholls' lack of runs means that Chapman then replaces Nicholls at #6.

However, Chapman hasn't scored enough runs to demand selection ahead of Nicholls. And why is that? Because he's been trying to do the Williamson/Taylor role. This shit is weird folks and as long as Aotearoa are losing games, these weird selection decisions get exposed instead of being swept under the rug when the Blackcaps are beating weaker teams.

Hopefully nothing weird happens to Ish Sodhi because he's been Aotearoa's best bowler so far. Sodhi has 5w in 20ov @ 23.20avg/5.80rpo and that puts him slightly ahead of Trent Boult's 6w in 28ov @ 26.16avg/5.60rpo, let's settle for them sharing the honours right now.

At the other end of the spectrum; Tim Southee has 1w in 27ov @ 150avg/5.55rpo and Colin de Grandhomme has 1w in 16ov @ 55avg/3.43rpo.

Including Munro and Santner, Aotearoa have four of their six (excluding Lockie Ferguson) bowlers averaging over 50. England have four of their six (Woakes, Ali, Stokes, Rashid) averaging under 50 and three of their six (Woakes, Ali, Stokes) averaging under 30.

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Peace and love 27.