We were only graced with one Ford Trophy fixture yesterday thanks to Mother Nature (shout out to her) with Central Districts getting up over Northern Districts in Hamilton. Only one game of cricket to yarn about gives me a few lines to come up with a Ford Trophy All Stars team, well a Ford Trophy All Stars team after three rounds of action. I imagine there'll be another All Stars team in a few rounds and then after the competition ends, with a couple of games done and dusted, now is a funky time to reward those who have started with a sizzle. 

But first...

Northern Districts vs Central Districts (CD win)

Notables

ND 266/6

Dean Brownlie - 47, Nick Kelly - 57, Daryl Mitchell - 93.

Seth Rance - 2/53 @ 5.30rpo.

CD 200/8 off 32.1 (chasing 200 from 33)

Josh Clarkson - 48

Scott Kuggeleijn - 2/26 @ 3.71rpo, Ish Sodhi - 2/28 @ 4rpo, Jono Boult 2/51 @ 12.75rpo.

Notes

Josh Clarkson was doing fantastic cricketing things as a 19-year-old, then he turned 20 on Saturday and got his 20th year on this planet off to a great start. 48 off 24 balls, striking at 200sr pretty much got CD the win here as rain played a role in a revised target but given that Clarkson's 48* comes on the back of 53* (T20), 70* and 68; you can trust Clarkson to give it a crack.

Daryl Mitchell hit 93* which was ND's foundation and while there's a clear young tinge to ND's bowling attack, Mitchell was joined by Nick Kelly's 57. Both are well-rounded batsmen who can play strokes everywhere and with Joe Carter backing up his notable innings last round with a first-ball duck here, it's fun to watch which ND youngsters stand up to take responsibility.

One of those youngish lads is also Bharat Popli and after a block-bustin' 2015/16 season, for whatever reason, Popli is struggling for runs this summer. This was Popli's first Ford Trophy game of the season and he notched a 7, although he has also put up a bunch of good starts up in the Plunket Shield and a 45 against the touring Bangladeshis team. Hopefully Popli gets a good stint in ND's one-day team and we can see what Popli's got.

Ish Sodhi also returned to ND and apart from the ever-impressive Scott Kuggeleijn, Sodhi was ND's best bowler. Skittling the stumps of his former Under 19 captain Will Young and then having Tom Bruce stumped, Sodhi did everything he could to put ND in a winning position.

Ooi what'd'ya know; Kieran Noema-Barnett is another joker returning to the Ford Trophy. The CD all-rounder popped up for the Stags after a winter over in England on the Kiwi County Tour were he played alongside Hamish Marshall for Gloucestershire. He didn't do a whole lot in this game, which followed the general pattern of his work in Gloucs' first team but when Noema-Barnett was dropped to their second team, he hit scores of 75, 10 and 91 in his last three one-day games as well as a 118 and 3/44 in his last four-dayer.

Ford Trophy All Stars (Round 3)

Dean Browline

7th in runs, 102 runs @51avg.

They don't get much more steady at the top of the order than Mr Brownlie and the ND veteran has scores of 0, 55* and 47 thus far. We're a bit light on opening batsmen in the All Stars, plus there's no real fault in anything that Brownlie does in domestic cricket.

Glenn Phillips

27th in runs, 42 runs @ 21avg.

When jotting names down, I had a space spare and I didn't have a wicket-keeper. That led me to a sneaky wildcard selection and Phillips ticks those boxes as I want an opening batsmen to go out and give it a whack, especially with Brownlie holding it down with the young lad. No stats, just a wildcard selection.

Sean Solia

1st in runs, 236 runs @ 118avg.

Two big scores for Solia from two innings give him the title of the Ford Trophy's leading run-scorer and that ensures that he's given the No.3 spot ahead of Jesse Ryder. The classy lefty has not only piled up the runs, he's also ticked things over at 118sr.

Jesse Ryder

5th in runs, 132 runs @ 44avg.

Scores of 68, 33 and 31 might not stand out - especially compared to Solia - however when you see Ryder's strokes you understand that every shot he plays offers an opportunity to take his wicket, along with a high chance that the ball flies to the boundary. Working in Ryder's favour is his leadership role at CD and the fact that he's chipped in with runs in every game.

Jimmy Neesham

8th in runs, 93 runs @ 46.50avg / 5th in wkts, 5 wkts @ 15.80avg/5.78rpo.

Otago's best seamer and their leading run-scorer; can't go wrong with that for all-rounders can ya? Neesham has served up back to back contributions with 65 and 1/21 followed by 4/58 and 28.

Josh Clarkson

2nd in runs, 186 runs @ 186avg.

The phenom. Clarkson has the highest strike-rate of any batsman with over 100 runs (126.53sr).

Luke Woodcock

3rd in runs, 155 runs @ 155avg / 26th in wkts, 1 wkt @ 59avg/4.53rpo.

Named to come in way down the order, Woodcock will be padded up from the start of the innings as he'll be ready to come in anywhere. I like that Woodcock can give the All Stars some spin and it's a handy option, but with two half-centuries in two games, Woodcock is a reliable batsman to have down the order. If we lose an early wicket or two, Woodcock will go in to bat to save Clarkson, Neesham and perhaps Ryder for after the 20th over.

Anaru Kitchen

10th in runs, 79 runs @ 39.50avg / 2nd in wkts, 8 wkts @ 9avg/3.60rpo.

The best spinner of the competition also scores a few runs for Otago as well and Kitchen is effectively twice as good as the next-best spinner Tarun Nethula as he's got 8 wickets vs 4 and his average of 9 is half of Nethula's 20avg.

Anurag Verma 

18th in runs, 58 runs / 3rd in wkts, 8 wkts @ 11.25avg/4.50rpo.

The low key surprise package of the Ford Trophy has been Wellington's Verma, who has been enjoying wickets and a few runs after toiling away for a number of seasons. He's ranked 3rd with the ball but he's got as tied with Kitchen and Lockie Ferguson on 8 wickets due to a slightly higher avg/rpo.

Scott Kuggeleijn

4th in wkts, 6 wkts @ 17.83avg/4.11rpo.

Always up there among the best bowlers in domestic cricket, Kuggeleijn is merely continuing his fantastic work from the Plunket Shield. 

Lockie Ferguson

1st in wkts, 8 wkts @ 7.75avg/3.75rpo.

There's absolutely no reason why we need to think of Ferguson as a T20 specialist and while he's slotted back into the Ford Trophy strongly, need I remind y'all once again that Ferguson's best numbers come in First-Class cricket (25.09avg/3.31rpo). Just don't pigeon-hole Ferugson.