Aotearoa's White Ferns were given an almighty touch up in their ODI series vs South Africa and have now flipped the scenario to dominate South Africa in their first two T20I. It's completely sensible to see a change in fortunes come via a change in formats and in the year of the T20 World Cup, seeing the Ferns put up big wins in the T20I format is super encouraging. This presents a fine line where there are a few variables at play here perhaps influencing these first two games and hyping up the White Ferns for getting back to winning ways.

South Africa have managed their roster for these T20I games, with two of their best players from the ODI series in Sune Luus and Dane van Niekerk only playing in the second game. Luus only bowled 2.2 overs in yesterday's game (1w @ 2.57rpo) and along with Shabnim Ismail is a potent threat in South Africa's bowling line up, plus Luus and van Niekerk offer class with bat and ball.

This is a five game series and if the kiwis can continue to win games in any fashion throughout the remainder of the series, then some anticipation for their T20 World Cup campaign will build. For now, this feels like two fairly even cricket squads who have taken different paths for the start of this T20I series as the White Ferns have stuck with the same playing 11 while South Africa rotate a wee bit.

Take this for example: Luus and van Niekerk are the only bowlers from either team to concede less than 3rpo in the T20I series from their small sample size performance yesterday. How the Ferns batswomen deal with greater influence from South Africa's best players will be a key idea to watch out for in the next three games.

If there is one thing about women's cricket that I'm absolutely certain about, it is that any kind of bowling that isn't clinical, accurate and nifty will be dispatched by Sophie Devine. This happened in WBBL, then Devine essentially won Wellington Blaze the Women's Super Smash final via her six-hitting in a shortened game and now Devine has scores of 54* and 61 so far.

Two half-centuries, with an overall strike-rate of 153.33 and Devine's the only player in this series with a strike-rate over 130. Aotearoa have restricted South Africa to scores less than 120 in both games, so the kiwi batters haven't had to go crazy but for Devine specifically this is a nice improvement from her ODI work where she only managed 60 runs @ 20avg/68.96sr in three games.

Rachel Priest and Suzie Bates are next-best in this T20I series; Priest's strike-rate of 120 catches the eye as her pinch-hitting could be important alongside Devine and Bates during the T20 World Cup.

Also interesting has been Priest playing as the wicket-keeper, with Katey Martin also in the team batting in the middle order. This differs to the ODI series where Martin played two games and Priest came in for one game, obviously adjusting for the change in formats which is better suited to Priest's game up the top of the order. Forecasting towards the T20 World Cup, this sets up an immensely experienced batting line up of Devine, Priest, Bates, Perkins and Martin with Maddy Green sprinkled in.

Amelia Kerr has 3w @ 11.66avg/5rpo, while Lea Tahuhu, Leigh Kasperek, Rosemary Mair and Hayley Jensen all have 2w each with nice averages/rpo. Tahuhu is showcasing her T20 value as she has taken her 2w @ 11.50avg/3.83rpo and has been the most economical kiwi bowler. This presents a strange predicament that will see me hold up and wait until later in this series to suss out the kiwi bowlers as South Africa had the five leading bowlers in the ODI series, now Aotearoa has the five leading bowlers of the T20I series.

Kerr and Kasperek for example are averaging under 20 and conceding less than 6po in this T20I series, after they both averaged over 100 in the ODI series. In fact, other than Tahuhu who didn't play in the ODIs, Kerr, Kasperek, Jensen and Mair all averaged over 50 in the ODI series (or Mair didn't grab an average via not taking a wicket) and are now the slickest of the T20I series.

Next up are two games in Wellington on Sunday, then Monday.

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Peace and love 27.