There's so many bits and pieces of kiwi cricket floating around at the moment that I'm going to take a minor detour from the normal structure and jam various topics in here. Aotearoa's White Ferns are currently in a horrible slump, the Blackcaps can't beat India and have a fresh ODI squad, while I'm still zoning in on Henry Cooper's work in the Ford Trophy for Northern Districts Knights.

I did a wee thing forecasting some White Ferns T20 World Cup ideas here.

And a thingy on the recent round of Ford Trophy.

Let's start with the White Ferns who have lost their ODI series vs South Africa 0-3. Three games and twice the kiwis were rolled for less than 150, with South Africa taking 29 wickets across the three games and Aotearoa took just 9w. No White Ferns bowler averaged below 20 with the ball, while South Africa had four bowlers average under 20 and the best kiwi bowler was Jess Kerr playing in her debut series with 2w @ 20avg/5.71rpo.

Holly Huddleston and Hayley Jensen averaged over 50, Amelia Kerr and Leigh Kasperek averaged over 100. Rosemary Mair? She didn't take a wicket, so no average there.

As for runs, Suzie Bates led the Ferns with 142 runs @ 47.33avg/73.95sr followed by Katie Perkins' 89 runs @ 29.66avg/88.11sr. Bates was however, the only White Fern to score over 100 runs across the three games and Bates is joined by Perkins and Sophie Devine as the only kiwis to score over 50 runs; Devine was well below her standard with 60 runs @ 20avg/68.96sr.

The Proteas Women chased down 150 with 12.4 overs to spare to complete a 6-wicket win over the White Ferns and take the One-Day International Series 3-0, after a brilliant display with the ball from all-rounder Sune Luus on Thursday in Hamilton.

Kasperek and Amelia Kerr are noted bowlers, who have also dabbled in lovely batting exploits throughout their careers and yet the both scored less than 20 runs in 3inns each. Then we have the frontline batswomen Maddy Green and Lauren Down, who also scored less than 20 runs but in 2inns each.

Here's the White Ferns form across their last four series, all of which feature three ODIs...

LLW-LLW-LLL-LLL.

That's ... that just sucks.

Of course, these ODI games are part of the Women's Championship which is played across a few years and Aotearoa is 6th with only West Indies and Sri Lanka below them. Having played 18 games, the kiwis are 7-11 and given that their last three series have been against England, Australia and India, this 0-3 sweep to South Africa is the climax of the concern.

Prior to this summer, I raised the idea of immense change coming the Blackcaps way purely based on the change in their schedule. Having gone from limited Test cricket to Test series against England and Australia in a relatively short space of time, I was curious to see how natural rotation via injuries etc, would impact selection. Which is apparently exactly what we are getting right now, well it goes back to the series vs Australia when there were all sorts of changes.

Now we've got a Blackcaps ODI squad to face India which features Hamish Bennett, Kyle Jamieson, Scott Kuggeleijn and Tom Blundell; some who have been there before, some fresh on the scene. None of these lads would be deemed to be 1st 11 ODI'ers and have earned their selection via consistently strong performances and/or vacancies in the Blackcaps group.

Seeing how different players come into the Blackcaps group and how they perform is always interesting. As I've steadily celebrated the quality of kiwi cricket's low key depth, I'm obviously eager to see someone like Jamieson tested at the international level and the same goes for anyone else.

The issue is how folks view these versions of the Blackcaps. Having lost to Australia with a blatantly weakened playing 11, a team that was a notable drop off from the 1st 11 Test team, many people got in their feelings about the Blackcaps performance. I do have a favourable view of Aoteraoa's cricket depth, yet I'm also a realist with regards to international cricket and as soon as their was any move away from a Blackcaps 1st 11, my expectations quickly changed.

That started with Trent Boult's absence and then the floodgates opened; this current wider Blackcaps group ain't going to win Tests in Australia without its 1st 11. The same is now applied to this T20I series against India where my perspective is all about the T20 World Cup and that, compounded with a team that rather obviously isn't Aotearoa's 1st 11 T20I team, has me less concerned about results. I'm merely viewing this T20I series as seeing how things lay, whether certain trends are continuing or slowing down etc.

Now it's the ODI group that essentially has a second, maybe even third-string bowling unit. This is crucial to the future of the Blackcaps, well it can be if players aren't kicked out for a few mediocre performances and are given time to suss out international cricket. In this forced, but welcomed period of transition, my advice is to simply enjoy watching different players move into the international arena.

Release expectations. Certainly don't buzz about losing to India with a second-tier team and enjoy the insights we can all gain from seeing blokes tested at this level.

I dabbled in Central Districts Stags vs Otago Volts and Canterbury vs Wellington Firebirds yesterday, which leaves Auckland Aces' win over Northern Districts Knights. Rob O'Donnell and Ben Horne both scored 50+ for Auckland and that's Horne's second notable score in a row after his 101 in the previous game. BJ Watling and Henry Cooper both scored 50+ for ND.

One of our rising stars, Henry Cooper, talks about his time in the UK, following in his dads footsteps and securing his first ND contract.

This is Cooper's third 50+ score in a row, which can be stretched out to four 40+ scores in a row. Cooper now moves up to 2nd in Ford Trophy runs, only 4 runs behind Devon Conway and given the understandable buzz around Conway, Cooper's right there with him in the Ford Trophy while also having a First-Class average of 37.91. As I've highlighted numerous times now, Cooper is doing this with a healthy strike-rate of 97.93, which is higher than Conway's (95.98sr) and George Worker (88.15sr).

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Peace and love 27.