During a fairly lean Plunket Shield first stanza for Auckland Aces, one batsman stood out from the pack. Both Mark Chapman and Michael Guptill-Bunce hit three 50+ scores, but Chapman scored a smidge more runs from one less innings and on top of that, Chapman drips swag juice with his shots and on top of that, the Hong Kong international just generally has more funk around him as one of Aotearoa's premier youngins'.

Chapman is a Hong Kong international and he's scored a fair few 50-over runs for the emerging cricketing nation, which had me intrigued about his Ford Trophy prospects. Auckland are also currently playing without Sean Solia and that opens the door for one of Auckland's young batsmen to really breakout. Solia finished as the 2nd leading run-scorer in FT last season, averaging 77.66 through 7 innings and with five notable scores.

After 3 innings, Chapman has stacked up two notable scores and matched Solia's century mark from last season with 125* off 119 balls in Auckland's loss to Wellington Firebirds. Chapman was eventually shown up by Wellington's Stephen Murdoch who smoked 117 off just 91 balls, so big it up for Murdoch - Chapman's 2nd in FT runs though just like Solia and has a nifty strike-rate of 94.88 which a notch below Solia's 99.57sr.

Many batsmen have hit centuries in FT this season; Chapman, Murdoch, Colin Munro, Michael Pollard, BJ Watling, Dane Cleaver, Hamish Rutherford and Jesse Ryder. Chapman's the only geezer with a big ol' hundy and a 50+ score to go with it, there's also a wee streak in action here as Chapman's 55* and 125* have come in consecutive games. You can twist it as two consecutive not-outs, two consecutive notable scores or two consecutive not-out-notables. Up to you g.

Hold up, I ain't finished because of all the batsmen who have hit centuries are OG veterans except for Chapman and Cleaver. Cleaver finally got his FT sparked with 124* vs Otago this round, more on that below and Cleaver's 25years, while Chapman is just 23yrs. That means that not only is Chapman the only century-maker to stack their century on top of another notable knock, he's the youngest of the century makers after three games as well.

Chapman is a joy to watch on the scorecards (standard note to NZC that only showing scorecard boundaries/wickets is terrible in 2017) as he effortless strokes boundaries which a unique twist. Without much rational, it just feels like Chapman is capable of hitting shots that other batsmen can't hit, or that Chapman hits a gap when other batsmen would hit a different gap or no gap at all. 

Here's Chapman's 12 fours he hit and peep the variety in these strokes as they are not only all-around the wicket, Chapman can hit every shot:

Much like Devon Conway's ability to hit a back-foot drive from just outside off-stump through point, hitting a back-foot drive at the top of the bounce through the covers is one of my markers of a quality batsman. Chapman punished anything short and pull-able - he also hit a six from a pull - and many batsmen can play a pull shot to score runs, many batsmen can also play a cut shot to a short and wide-ish delivery. The margin for error is so much smaller for a bowler though when the batsman can still score off a ball that isn't wide enough to cut, via the back-foot drive; decent batsmen defend it or get a single, lovely batsmen hit fours off it.

There's also nice progression in Chapman's innings as those back-foot drives came early and then as bowlers hit their yorkers, Chapman got busy lappin' the ball. Chapman's other six came from a lap and when pondering the ease at which Chapman plays this shot along middling drives away from his body, there's a natural gift in Chapman for hitting a ball through hand-eye co-ordination and fast hands.

Chapman's hundy was supported by 60 from Auckland skipper Craig Cachopa, his first notable score of the summer. Similar to Tarun Nethula, Cachopa was a victim of Auckland's slow start in Plunket Shield and has been revived in FT, even promoted to take over from PS skipper Guptill-Bunce. In 7 innings this summer, Cachopa has passed 20 just three times and this is his first score over 35. 

Cachopa has been one of Aotearoa's up and comers for a while now, without really establishing himself as a genuine prospect and he's kinda been over-taken by the likes of Chapman and other talented youngsters. How Cachopa rolls through FT and even Super Smash cricket will be of low key interest now that he has a score to his name.

CD wicket-keeper/batsman Dane Cleaver did hit a cheeky hundy, filling me with joy as I've consistently made a point of putting Cleaver in the same bracket as Tom Blundell and Tim Seifert. I will re-up on this group's performances when there's a slightly bigger break between FT games and we've got developments with Seifert struggling and Canterbury's Cameron Fletcher truckin' along nicely, that'll obviously include more details on Cleaver as well.

Cleaver scored 25 runs in two innings, not quite adjusting to 50-over cricket as swiftly as he'd like - Seifert's paddling up shit's creek in that regard as well - but this also came with Cleaver moved up to open. Another way of looking at Cleaver's FT thus far is that he was merely saving himself for when CD really needed some runs, which was game three vs Otago as Cleaver's 124* off 124 balls led CD to victory. 

CD chased down Otago's 288 to win and Cleaver needed to go large given that George Worker, Jesse Ryder, Will Young and Tom Bruce combined to score just 17 runs. That won't happen too often, but with such batting talent in your top-five, someone will score runs and not only was this a timely knock to get Cleaver's FT underway, it was timely to deliver CD a win.

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Peace and love 27.