My favourite cricket accessory is the long sleeve jersey, long sleeve sweater thing. Loose, cozy and a crispy shade of white or cream depending on your team's preference - it really pissed me off when a few Test teams moved away from the typical vest/sweater a few years ago - and Plunket Shield cricket on late October saw the quintessential cricket sweater out in force. What a sight, what a life.

There are so many layers to an opening round of Plunket Shield cricket. Performances are obviously at the top of the list and within that you've got different niches reserved for blokes who are bursting on to the circuit, blokes who are trying to back up a strong 2016/17 campaign and those who are on the fringes of international duty stepping back to domestic cricket with the intention to dominate. Each team has a different context around them as well and you'll never know how a team's going to line up until they roll out their first playing group, plus there are various trends that we can nibble; the small sample size means we're nibbling at a crumb but that crumb's still bloody scrumptious.

Trends like 17 different batsmen scoring 50+ in an innings, or in a super specific vibe the worrying trend of Brad Wilson going back to back with 50+ scores for Otago. Wilson dominated last season and opposition bowlers would have seen Wilson's scores and collectively smoked a J in honour of the tiny chances of them dismissing him cheaply.

Same goes for Ajaz Patel who is chasing his third-straight season with 40+ wickets and got the season rollin' with 9 wickets/3.46rpo for Central Districts against Northern Districts; dude is a quarter of the way to his nek-level milestone, already!

Patel and Mark Craig were the only bowlers to take over 6+ wickets, both are spinners. 10 bowlers took 4+ wickets and four of them are spinners, which isn't heaps but Patel and Craig leading all wicket-takers, with Blake Coburn (more on him below) and Tim Johnston also doing damage; Aotearoa's still a spin haven. Breaking the mould was Patel bowling the least number of overs of that spinning group as he only bowled 37.5 overs while Craig had 50, Coburn 45.4 and Johnston 66.5.

Blake Coburn aka the kiwi Brad Hogg yoza:

Given the state of either team, Wellington's demolition of Auckland isn't overly crazy. This did hammer home a point about the Aces as they just aren't very good, based purely on a lack of talent compared to the strength of other teams. Much of their team vs Wellington is either young or at the start of their domestic careers and it's very rare for young players to consistently score runs/take wickets. Auckland will enjoy funky contributions like Mark Chapman's 61, Michael Barry's 41 or even Ben Horne coming and sweeping Jeetan Patel twice and banging him over his head for six while scoring 24; there will be moments in games for Auckland but you can't bank on consistency.

What we can bank on is that players will emerge from this current Auckland team to be the cornerstones of future Auckland teams. The Aces would tank if there was a reward for that and I wouldn't be surprised if at some stage they go all-in on young players while Jeet Raval and Lockie Ferguson hold it down as they are in a very different phase to most of the other provinces. I can't give Auckland the credit of wisely investing in the art of rebuilding so they're not in the Philadelphia 76ers/Brooklyn Nets or Newcastle Knights category - making their intentions crystal clear - , but Auckland fans need to be aware that that's the situation.

You can definitely point to the fact that many players have left Auckland as an example of shenanigans. Ajaz Patel left Auckland to see what was on offer at CD (Ish Sodhi did the same with ND) and now Patel is joined by Brad Schmulian who couldn't get a gig with Auckland, so he gapped it to CD and casually hit 203 off 207 balls while Doug Bracewell (63) was the only other batsman to score over 17.

They were playing against Brett Randell, an ND seamer who came up in Auckland. Cameron Fletcher is another Auckland junior and he's wicket-keeping for Canterbury, who came up against former Aces Rob Nicol and Jimmy Neesham. For whatever reason, players are happy to leave Auckland and you can come to your own conclusions about that but all I know is that Auckland aren't very good and they've let strong performers waltz out the door.

On the back of that and via Ollie Newton's impressive debut for Wellington, I came across a Wellington 'A' vs Auckland 'A' scorecard from 2014. Horne batted No.3 and smoked 145 off 142 balls, Sean Solia was batting No.7, Otago seamer Warren Barnes joined Lockie Ferguson in the bowling attack and guess who captained this Auckland team? Brad Schmulian.

Schmulian and Newton both made righteous debuts, although the challenge is to now back those performances up. How will batsmen face up against Newton now that they've seen him in action and it's tough to judge a bowler when they skittle an Auckland batting group - holla when you're bowling against Otago. Schmulian has a battle to keep his spot in CD's middle order as Tom Bruce will return at some stage, there was no Jesse Ryder or Ben Wheeler here either.

CD will also hope George Worker continues to get shafted from a Blackcaps run as it appeared as though opener Ben Smith suffered an injury, meaning that Patel was sent to open in both innings. Despite his double-hundy, Schmulian is still down on the CD depth chart and will have to demand further selection by ensuring that his debut knock wasn't a out-lier.

Umm Ajaz Patel who took the most wickets, opened the batting (17 off 67, 10 off 21) and fielded at first slip. Jazzy af.

Other than noting that Otago appear to be on par with Wellington in terms of - 'oh shit, their team's mental', I was most intrigued by Neil Wagner and Mark Craig. Wagner's merely going about his business and is still holding the crown of Aotearoa's best bowler after the opening round with 2w in 20 overs @ 2.35rpo and 3w in 23.5 overs @ 3.02rpo. Featuring no wickets from bouncers:

Well, directly from bouncers. When batsmen are wofting at full balls, it's probably because Wagnut has pegged them on the back foot, or at least his reputation has infiltrated the minds of the batsmen.

Although I'm definitely not on the Craig x Blackcaps return bandwagon, if could be a possibility if Craig is able to pile up wickets and chip in with runs as he did in round one; 2w in 18 overs @ 1.78rpo, 46 runs, 4w in 32 overs @ 2.72rpo. Craig is likely to have runs on the board, or ooze trust in his batsmen to back up his bowling via Otago's impressive batting unit, plus the Blackcaps opportunity combined with the fact that other spinners have been lapping up Aotearoa's juicy pitches recently, could see Craig with a point to prove.

Craig bowled 50 overs this round and that's a considerable effort, representing the options available to Otago. With four seamers - Wagner, Duffy, Rae, Smith - Craig is the lone spinner and is good enough in domestic cricket to hold up an end, suss batsmen out, build up to a wicket, while the seamers offer something different at the other end or when Craig needs a break. Everything is set up for Craig to dominate and him trying to keep up with Ajaz Patel will be a funky narrative to follow.

Big chur to ND for letting Brett Hampton go down and join Canterbury. Hampton hit 60 off 82 balls in their second innings, but he's mainly a bowler and didn't take a wicket in either innings. Regardless, good vibes are good vibes and this oozes good vibes. Hampton may struggle to crack ND's bowling attack any time soon and with the current predicament Canterbury find themselves in, this could lead to a Hampton being loaned out mid-term.

Bang an ad to show your support to the Niche Cache. You'll be making a donation, without having to pay anything and it'll be lovely for everyone. Chur mate.

Jump on Patreon if you do have a dollar to spare. You can sign up for a buck a month to help the Niche Cache and you'll get exclusive access to 27fm's Domestic Cricket Daily radio.