The finals are now set in stone after the final round of Ford Trophy cricket, with the highlight being Otago continuing their strong run into finals cricket with a big win over Wellington. Auckland lost to Central Districts, with both teams passing 300 runs in their respective innings while Northern Districts finished their Ford Trophy campaign with a win.

This is how the table finished up, which means that Canterbury will play CD with the loser from that game to play the winner of Otago vs Auckland.

Sizzle, You're On Fire

Jesse Ryder

While Ben Smith and Tom Bruce both scored more runs than Ryder's 60 off 54 balls, this was Ryder's fourth 50 in seven games and Ryder also boasts the highest strike-rate of any player to score more than 300 runs.

Mark Chapman

A century for Hong Kong and now a century for Auckland, 21 year old Mark Chapman tried valiantly to get Auckland close to CD's 349 to win as he smacked 159 off 112 balls. This included 15 fours and 7 sixes for the classly left-hander who came to the crease with Auckland struggling, before his swashbuckling innings got them up around 300. 

Donovan Grobbelaar

Chapman was supported by Donovan Grobbelaar, with the two sharing a 100-run partnership off 88 balls. Grobbelaar hit 56 off 46 balls, which came after the lefty medium-pacer took 4/65 off his 10 overs.

Hamish Rutherford 

Last time we were here I lamented Hamish Rutherford's inability to convert his good starts into big scores and boy did he do just that as Otago set Wellington a staggering 363 to win. Rutherford bludgeoned Wellington's bowlers, smacking 126 off 90 balls with 10 fours and 7 sixes, which boosts Rutherford's FT numbers as he's now fourth on the run-scorers ladder. 
Rutherford and Ryder are the only batsmen to score 300 runs with strike-rates over 100.

Michael Bracewell

Supporting Rutherford was Michael Bracewell who's second 50 in a row has come in conjunction with Otago's charge into the finals. Bracewell hit 91 off 94 balls, a far slower innings than his previous 60 as he laid the foundations for Otago's big win.

Neil Wagner | Jacob Duffy

Bracewell and Rutherford have led the way with the bat, while Neil Wagner and Jacob Duffy have been immense with the new ball. Wagner took 4/34 off 8.3 overs while Duffy's 3/40 off 5 overs knocked the top of Wellington's batting line up, thus making their chase near-impossible.

Duffy has taken 3/39 and 3/40 in his last two outings while Wagner has worked his way to 14 wickets, just behind Lachie Ferguson and Ed Nuttall.

Round-Robin Leaders

Shout out to Ed Nuttall and Neil Broom who have ended the round-robin stage as the leading wicket-taker and run-scorer. Nuttall has taken 16 wickets at an average of 15.43 and an economy rate of 4.66, with the lefty impressing thanks to honing in on a full length that targets the stumps. How CD deal with Nuttall's new-ball exploits will be crucial to their finals game.

Broom missed out against Wellington, which didn't do him any harm as the leading run-scorer. Broom scored 399 runs at an average of 79.80 and a strike-rate of 91.09, hitting the most fours of any batsmen with 42. 

Kudos

Ben Smith | Tom Bruce

25 year old Ben Smith and 24 year old Tom Bruce both hit 90 and 91 respectively as CD went about setting Auckland 349 to win. Smith opened the innings, scoring at a run-a-ball while Bruce played a destructive middle-order innings with his 91 coming off 62 balls. 

Bevan Small | Seth Rance

I've stated my appreciation for CD's bowling attack and we saw how important options are as Ben Wheeler and Doug Bracewell managed a wicket between them and both went for 6 runs an over. CD were able to restrict Auckland thanks to Seth Rance's 3/40 off 9 overs and Bevan Small's 3/45 off 10 overs.

After taking 10 wickets in his first three games, Rance fell off a bit recently however he's now back in the leading wicket-takers bucket with 14 wickets to his name.

Andrew Ellis

Canterbury struggled for runs against ND and would be thankful to veteran Andrew Ellis for his patient knock in the middle-order. Ellis hit 96 off 119 balls after Canterbury's top five combined for 69 runs between them.

Tony Goodin

In five games, Tony Goodin has taken 11 wickets and is 3 wickets behind fellow ND seamer Joel Baker who has played eight games. Goodin took 3/36 off 7 overs against Canterbury and will finish up with a FT bowling average of 21.54.

Dean Brownlie

Also helping ND end their FT campaign on a winning note was Dean Brownlie. He hit 67 off 77 which is cool huh?

Hmm

Canterbury vs Central Districts and Otago vs Auckland huh?

I like CD to get up over Canterbury as they have my favourite bowling attack (Rance, Bracewell, Wheeler and Small) along with some of the most destructive batsmen in the country. Interestingly, Canterbury's leading run-scorer is Andrew Ellis, who is ranked 18th and while this points to Canterbury's batsmen sharing the load, I reckon Canterbury lack a Ryder or Worker in their batting line up.

Then I'm going to jump on board the Otago bandwagon as they have got hot at the perfect time. Otago have one of the best teams in the competition and I remember a few rounds ago that I wondered if they would continue to struggle near the bottom of the ladder or if they would find some form, they did the latter.

Any one of Otago's top five are likely to go ballistic and they bat all the way down to Sam Wells at No.9, plus they have welcomed Nathan McCullum back. Keep an eye on Jimmy Neesham who has had a quiet time of it, he's the only big name in this Otago team who hasn't quite delivered and there's no better time to do so against his former province Auckland in a finals game.

Lachie Ferguson has been a wicket-taking machine, however I love the Wagner/Duffy combination so I'm leaning towards them. Especially when Otago have McCullum and Mark Craig to pin Auckland's big hitters down.