Over the past few days there has been a T20 'A' tournament in Taupo, consisting of North Island domestic teams. These are always super intriguing for a nerd like me and even the idea that although some of the players taking part are contracted, many aren't and would have needed to have a few days off work for some T20 cricket. 

I'm also not a big fan of 'A' stuff and prefer the stock-standard 2nd XI name. From now on, I'll refer to A cricket as 2nd XI cricket, making this a T20 2nd XI tournament. The scorecards from the last two games - final and 3rd/4th playoff - weren't up in action by the time I wrote this, so I'm working off the six games leading up to the finals afternoon. Oh and I'm overly bothered by the results, more so bits and bobs from the various teams.

Here's my notes...

The list of captains sets the scene for why this tournament caught my eye; Nick Kelly and Josef Walker for ND, Hamish Marshall for Wellington, Craig Cachopa for Auckland and I'm not sure who ML Thomas is for CD. Walker and Cachopa have both played Plunket Shield cricket this season, while we all know about Marshall and he hasn't been sighted in Wellington's PS team yet - he'll likely feature come Ford Trophy time. Kelly was ND's captain for two games, Walker once and Kelly is similar to Marshall in that he's yet to play PS this season and is more likely to get opportunities in limited-overs cricket.

Kelly has been impressive in limited-overs cricket recently for ND and that showed in his three innings of the tournament; 80 off 47, 20 off 15 and 45 off 24. 

With some tweakers, Kelly can also bowl and he took 3w @ 11.57 in the first game.

Walker is ND's next-in-line spinner behind Ish Sodhi and Mitchell Santner, he was fairly solid with his offies; 2w @ 8rpo (3ov), 0w @ 13.50 (2ov) and 1w @ 7.50rpo (4ov).

ND also enjoyed the services of their fringe-PS seamers Zak Gibson and Brett Hampton for the first two games. Gibson had 1w @ 8rpo (2ov) and 1w @ 11.25 (4ov), while Hampton had 2w @10rpo (4ov) and 2w @ 10.50rpo (4ov).

Hampton also smacked 94 off just 34 balls in their first game, following on from the 60 he hit for Canterbury in the PS - Hampton was a Cantab for a game.

Katene Clarke was another who had solid contributions after getting a first game 1 out of the way. Clarke then smacked 58 off 43 and 37 off 27, batting #3 and then moving up to open.

Auckland had a few big names in their roster, with Cachopa joined by Donovon Grobbelaar and Raja Sandhu. All three will be eager to get back into Auckland's 1st XI, whatever the format and have been victims of Auckland's struggles to start PS. Cachopa has fallen behind the likes of Sean Solia and Rob O'Donnell, while Grobbelaar and Sandhu were with Ben Lister and Danru Ferns stepping in.

Cachopa: 42 off 24, 33 off 30 and 10 off 10.
Grobbelaar: 1w @ 12.25rpo (4ov), 2w @ 4rpo (4ov), 3w @ 2rpo (3ov).
Sandhu: 3w @ 10.75rpo (4ov), 1w @ 9.75rpo (4ov), 2w @ 9.75rpo (3ov).

Auckland also have Finn Allen, who is a prospect with a fair amount of hype around him. Allen batted #3 throughout the tournament and his best performance was 30 off 20 in the second game, with two other scores under 10. He can also bowl, although he only managed 6 overs without a wicket @ 8.5rpo.

Nick Hendrie caught the eye though with scores of 51 off 41, 9 off 16 and 92 off 58. A Nick Hendrie exists of ESPNCricinfo, so this could be him, which mean that he's another South African who has made their way to Aotearoa on their cricketing journey. Hendrie averaged 33.69 in SA First-Class cricket and also appears to be the club coach at Grafton Cricket Club in Auckland, plus he's spent time in England playing for Great Ayton; all in just 25 years on this planet. 

There's this Josh Clarkson bloke who has already torn Ford Trophy and Super Smash bowling attacks to pieces with his power-hitting, which makes a 2nd XI tournament a slice of banana cake for the 20-year-old. Clarkson smoked 69 off 43 balls, then came back down to Earth with 14 off 15 and finished somewhere in-between with 39 off 25. This came while Clarkson dropped a place down the batting order with each came as he started at #3 and finished at #5.

CD also had Ben Wheeler and Bevan Small in their team, with Wheeler playing the first two games. Wheeler didn't do much with the bat, batting #5 (3 off 7) and #7 (4 off 4), he was however stingey with the ball as he conceded 2.82rpo in 2.5ov and 4.75rpo in 4ov with a wicket in either game. 

Small didn't bowl in any game and batted in just two; 1 off 3, 10* off 17.

Willem Ludick is just another kiwi-South African dominating the kiwi cricket scene. The CD all-rounder was the pick of CD's batsmen and bowlers, he's a 20-year-old who came to Aotearoa fresh off of reppin' SA at the Under 19 World Cup (bowls seam). 

Game One: 5 off 6 batting #8, 4w @ 3rpo (4ov).
Game Two: 101 off 48 batting #5, 1w @ 9.50rpo (4ov).
Game Three: 3w @6.25rpo (4ov), 1 off 4 batting #7.

Kaylum Boshier was another notable CD joker, with 47 off 37 and 52 off 51 in the last two games, batting #3.

Nothing really happened in Wellington's batting line up for the first two games, but the kiwi-South African takeover reached nek level when they unleashed Malcom Nofal at #3, Peter Younghusband at #4 and Devon Conway at #5 in their final game; Nofal hit 34 off 34, Younghusband 38 off 21 and Conway 45 off 27. Nofal has a Wellington contract and Younghusband featured for Wellington last season with his leggies, while Conway is the new joker.

Conway's 26-years-old and was a recent arrival in Wellington, having made his FC debut for Gauteng back in 2009. He averaged 42.30 in FC and 43.65 in List-A, hitting 205* in his last South African FC knock earlier this year before making the move to Aotearoa. 

In his FC debut, he played alongside Temba Bavuma and Andre Nel and it doesn't look like it'll take long for Conway to work his way into Wellington's 1st XI as a batsman; that 205 in his last SA FC game came with Conway playing solely as a batsman at #3.

We know South Africa's quota system has opened the floodgates for players to move abroad, but we've low key seen a shift with young players now coming to Aotearoa instead of County cricket in England for example. 

There's also a splash of funk in Wellington's bowling attack, with Vishi Jeet having made the move down from Auckland. Jeet's a left-arm spinner who made his Plunket Shield debut for Auckland back in early 2015, but couldn't crack Auckland's bowling attack again. He's still only 24-years-old and after conceding 11rpo of 4ov in the first game, Jeet took 2w @ 7.75rpo (4ov) and 2w @ 4.75rpo (4ov) in the next two games. 

Jeet moved down to Wellington ahead of last season, linking up with Johnsonville and then finished as the leading wicket-taker at the National 2nd XI tournament earlier this year. 

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Peace and love 27.