The search goes on for Kiwi selectors

Changes in the New Zealand one day cricket team may not be finished as the national selectors look for bowlers capable of preventing the sort of carnage Zimbabwe inflicted in today's sensational one-wicket win at Eden Park, Auckland.

The win allowed Zimbabwe to claim its first One-Day International series away from home as it claimed the National Bank Trophy by taking the series 2-1.

As, firstly, Andy Flower and then skipper Heath Streak took toll of New Zealand's bowling problems, the soft underbelly of the New Zealand game, which is running around looking for a winning formula in the absence of key performers Daniel Vettori, Geoff Allott and Chris Cairns, was vividly exposed.

Coach David Trist said after the game the selectors and management would have to go away and review all three matches.

Rather than heaping the blame on the bowlers, there might also be concern that apart from the occasion in Wellington where Nathan Astle (89not out) and Mathew Sinclair (85) did their job, there was no occasion when a New Zealand batsman took the innings and controlled it in the manner Andy Flower managed in both of Zimbabwe's victories.

New Zealand's batting failure in Auckland today when Astle was out for 48, Stephen Fleming for 44, Roger Twose for 30, was only partially papered over by Craig McMillan's rollicking 75 not out.

New Zealand should have scored 280 or more from the position of advantage they built but their batsmen again succumbed to the speed wobbles that have been symptomatic of New Zealand's one-day batting since the mid-1980s.

There were difficulties with the bowling during the middle stages of the Zimbabwe innings and there was a lack of pace at the end when Streak was able to pick off the New Zealand medium-pacers at will. But they may have been minimised with more runs on the board.

"Zimbabwe are a side not to be under-rated but we should still have put them away," Trist said.

"Our bowlers are not getting the length dead right and there are one or two players we could look at to do that," he said.

New Zealand's domestic one-day series heads into its last stages next week with the Shell Cup semi-finals and finals preceding the arrival of the Sri Lankan team for a five-match One-Day International tour.

None of the new players had let New Zealand down and there were some encouraging signs in performances but some of them would have to go back to their provinces and work harder at their game, Trist said.

Clearly, Shayne O'Connor must come back into the team. He is a wicket-taking bowler who, as recently as the series in Kenya had a five wicket bag. He has a strike rate of 32.32, the fourth best by a New Zealand bowler in ODI history, he takes 1.21 wickets a match.

With his increased speed and control in Africa this year, he was in an ideal position to develop further as a one day bowler. Yet he was dropped in preference for the unproven, but highly promising Chris Martin.

It may be that Martin develops into everything New Zealand wants in ODI cricket, but he, and James Franklin, and Scott Styris should have been allowed to work in with the one experienced bowler New Zealand who is still fit at this level.

Craig McMillan, for all his feistiness and competitive nature, is not the bowler New Zealand should be looking to for this role. Nor should he be bowling at the death. He is surely a batsman who can operate as a change bowler in partnership with Nathan Astle.

The situation was compounded with the lack of his usual spark from Chris Harris. Given the change over that needs to occur soon in the New Zealand game, it might have been preferable to have included Paul Wiseman from the outset of this series.

The desire to utilise the all-round skills of Brooke Walker never materialised and resulted in New Zealand diminishing the pool of experience it needed.

Trist described the team as being in transition and in that frame, losses have to be expected. But equally the transition can be managed in a seamless manner, not in the manner which was so cruelly exposed by Zimbabwe at Eden Park today.