Bowling in the Ford Trophy hasn't been all that easy in the first three games and while a few seamers do have averages dippin' below 20, none of the best bowlers are conceding less than 4.20rpo. Todd Astle and Rob Nicol are the only bowlers in the top-10 who have conceded less than 5rpo and times are tough on these FT streets. This won't get easier as the bowlers move into Super Smash cricket now, so here's a bunch of notes on bowling stuff that has caught my eye after the first stanza of FT cricket.

Mitchell McClenaghan is tied with Brent Arnel on 8w, leading the FT, but McClenaghan gets the slight no ahead of Arnel having conceded less runs. As an attacking weapon, a bowler who tends not to tie batsmen down and instead earns their bread through taking plenty of wickets with all sorts of deliveries, McClenaghan is joined in the top-five bowlers by leggy Tarun Nethula who is the definition of an attacking weapon right now; Nethula's got 7w but is conceding 7.06rpo.

Funnily enough, Lockie Ferguson has been the glue for Auckland in only conceding 3.69rpo with 3w. Matt Henry's the only bowler who has conceded less with 3.50rpo after he returned in the last round of games; they're the only notable bowlers conceding less than 4rpo.

I view Ferguson's work as being of equal importance to McClenaghan and Nethula because batsmen are paying Ferguson respect, while looking to pick up the slack against the other bowlers. Many would simply assume that Ferguson's a wild, expensive seamer just because he bowls fast, but he's consistently showed control in domestic cricket and if Ferguson can steadily chip away with wickets in every game and still concede less than 4rpo, it'll be just as funky as him topping the wicket-taking chart.

Northern Districts' Arnel is tied with McClenaghan at the top of the wicket-taking chart, with 8w @ 18.37avg/5.54rpo and that folks, is after Arnel took 14w @ 25.85avg/2.37 in Plunket Shield's first stanza. Given how plenty of PS bowlers have fallen off in the opening rounds of FT, you could make a case for Arnel being the best bowler of the domestic summer thus far.

Vintage Brent Arnel:

Back of a length, little nip away BABABABA

Otago's Jacob Duffy is the other contender; 18w @ 23.44avg/3.32rpo in PS and 6w @ 19.33avg/5.80rpo.

Moving into T20 cricket, how Duffy's comrade Jack Hunter backs up his impressive FT will be of interest and if Hunter can continue this form, I'll go deep to try and suss out what's making Hunter so slippery; 7w @ 17avg/5.90rpo.

These two are part of an Otago bowling attack that has offered the most surprise thus far, led by Hunter and Duffy. Although, given Duffy's PS work earlier this season, this shouldn't be a surprise and we may be witnessing the re-emergence of Duffy after he burst on to the domestic circuit a few years ago. It's one thing for Arnel to roll between PS and FT with the benefit of experience, it's another for a young seamer like Duffy to replicate a strong PS campaign in 50-over cricket.

Otago combine their firing young seamers with Rob Nicol, who is the only non-leggy in the top-10 wicket-takers. Nicol didn't use his offies in PS, but has rocked through 28ov in three games and has 5w @ 24.80avg/4.42rpo and his offies have looked glorious as there's a bit of flight, dip and turn, which when zoning in on off-stump to right-handers, has batsmen playing around straight deliveries. 2 of Nicol's wickets were lbw and with both, the batsman was lured into playing across the line with some dangerous dip:

Anaru Kitchen has been solid with his tweakers, but with Michael Rippon's lefty-leggies there's a nice splash of variety. Seamer Warren Barnes has also played all three games, just without the swash-bucklin' performances of the others and

I'm very intrigued in how Hamish Bennett (Welly), Scott Kuggeleijn (ND) and Doug Bracewell (CD) progress through T20 cricket, but more so how they bounce back when FT resumes. Bennett and Kuggeleijn have been solid, like really solid and although they're both averaging 30ish (4w), their solid-ness is in the fact that they haven't been blown away without taking wickets. They have conceded 4.65rpo (Bennett) and 4.53rpo (Kuggeleijn), which is nice and all, it's just not quite in keeping with the lofty standards they've set for themselves.

They share a similar vibe to their bowling as they are both fairly quick and serve up a heavy ball, hence they tend to enjoy success in domestic cricket. Without the same seam movement they got in PS and with the extra pace in their bowling, they are probably easier to deal with and batsmen would be paying them plenty of respect.

Bracewell's in the same high average/decent rpo bucket and as Bracewell's my favourite bowler in Aotearoa, I'm always interested in how he works through the various formats. Bracewell didn't do damage with wickets (his 3w came in one game) and had an average of 41.66, but his 4.46rpo was less than Bennett and Kuggeleijn.

Canterbury will be chuffed to have Matt Henry back in their attack and his class was evident in his return game; 3w in 10ov @ 3.50rpo.

Compare that to Will Williams (2w in 11ov @ 6.81rpo), Ben Stokes (1w in 26ov @ 5.53rpo) and Fraser Sheat (0w in 8ov @ 7.50rpo) and Henry effectively replaced Williams and Sheat himself.

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Peace and love 27.