Of the four innings in the two games played since I last did my thang, three innings featured 200+ scores; Auckland chased down Wellington's 206 yesterday and the day before that, Northern Districts hit 212 from their 20 overs before dismissing Otago for 106 in 15 overs. On top of those recent totals, Luke Ronchi's century is the second of the Super Smash with Ronchi joining Tim Seifert's knock; that's two centuries in less that four rounds of action as ND are the only team to play four games while the rest have played three.

Then you've got the fact that nine batsmen have over 100 runs thus far and of those nine batsmen, seven have strike-rates over 150. The bowlers' stats match up with that of the batsmen as only two bowlers in the top-10 wicket takers have conceded less than 7rpo and two have conceded over 10rpo, including the leading wicket-taker Tarun Nethula (10.10rpo).

Things get funky when comparing these numbers to the opening games of the Big Bash League (small sample size alert!); of the top-10 run-scorers, only four have strike-rates over 150 and of the top-10 wicket-takers, all have conceded less than 10rpo and only two have conceded more than 8rpo.

The majority of the best batsmen in Super Smash are scoring at a nek-level strike-rate and it's the opposite in the BBL. The majority of bowlers are conceding a nek-level amount of runs and it's the opposite in the BBL.

Absorb the small BBL sample, then sprinkle the smaller boundaries in Aotearoa on top of that and I'm still left with a vibe of the Super Smash bowling not being as good as it perhaps should be. When Ben Stokes, Jesse Ryder and Tim Seifert hit their big knocks earlier in the tournament, I highlight how many of their sixes were served up on a platter in their hitting zones and without going knee-deep in exploring the recent scores, the stats from a greater sample size back that up.

If Super Smash bowlers were slamming yorkers in, executing variations and generally restricting the number of hitting-zone deliveries, they wouldn't be getting spanked as the currently are. Even with Aotearoa's smaller boundaries; when watching Super Smash sixes, ask yourself if you think that was an easy or difficult delivery to hit for six.

My gut-feel is that many of the deliveries so far, fall in the easy to hit bucket. Keep an eye on how things play out over the next few games and I'll try muster up some analysis on the nek big scores.

Perhaps the best bowler of the Super Smash has been Anton Devcich, who along with his ND homie Ish Sodhi, is one of the two leading wicket-takers who is conceding less than 7rpo; 6w @ 6.53rpo. Devcich has also featured nicely for ND with the bat at #4 averaging 19.50 @ 127.86sr, which may not seem overly fantastic, when compared to Anaru Kitchen who has been selected for the Blackcaps Battlers T20 team, Devcich is a beast.

Devcich and Kitchen are extremely similar in that they bowl 4 overs of spin and are decent batsmen, both have played limited overs for the Battlers before as well. Devcich is also still knocking around on the T20 circuit, while Kitchen isn't.

Enjoy ! Don't forget to Like, Share & Subscribe !

This is another weird move from Lesson as they have rewarded Kitchen for hitting 13 runs in 2inns and Devcich's 19.50avg looks glorious up against Kitchen's 6.50avg. Lesson mentioned Kitchen's spin as a handy asset and in that regard, Kitchen has been rewarded for 1w in 6 overs @ 12.83rpo. I won't even go into their Ford Trophy stuff (they rolled out very similar numbers) because Lesson has an excessive habit of not selecting players in their best domestic format and it's my view that whatever domestic format you're dominating in, that's the format you slide into Battlers contention - the best dominate in all formats.

Not only has Kitchen done very, very little in the Super Smash thus far to genuinely earn a Battlers call up, he's unlikely to get too many opportunities to play in a squad stacked with Aotearoa's best T20 players and if he does play, he shouldn't really be taking overs away from Mitchell Santner and Ish Sodhi. Or, Tim Southee, Doug Bracewell, Lockie Ferguson, Matt Henry, Colin Munro, Seth Rance and even Tom Bruce rolls the arm over. There is a plethora of capable bowlers in this squad and Kitchen's unlikely to play a minor roll in the batting department.

And George Worker isn't even in the squad? Worker is one of the most dominant cricketers in Aotearoa and did a nice job in his Battlers ODI promotion, while also doing the job the same job as Kitchen; just much better.

And what did Todd Astle do wrong get brushed aside for Kitchen?

Plus Kitchen is kinda keeping Colin de Grandhomme's seat warm; not only has Kitchen not demanding selection in the Super Smash, there's no real long-term upside

That 'might play a game or two but probably won't' squad spot could have gone to a young cricketer who is going to contribute to kiwi cricket in coming years, a young cricketer who has performed better than Kitchen in Super Smash this season. A couple T20s against West Indies in Aotearoa would have been the ideal situation to wiggle Mark Chapman into the Blackcaps set up, heck you could even more more extreme and un-Earth a T20 gem in Josh Clarkson
I don't even care about Battlers T20 cricket, but there's about seven examples of why the Kitchen T20 selection is another example of Lesson's shenanigans.

Let me get back to my Super Smash and Big Bash League funk.

Hit an ad if you think you could do a better selection job than Lesson.

Peace and love 27.