After sussing out how Jesse Ryder, Ben Stokes and Tim Seifert were able to hit plenty of sixes off balls that begged to be hit for maximums, it may seem like a crappy start to the Super Smash for the bowlers. True and it's harder for the bowlers to make the required adjustments in line and length than it is for batsmen, there's still a few funky bowling efforts to explore after two games.

Well, not if you're Tim Southee or Doug Bracewell.

I went into detail about why it was weird to call up Bracewell to the Blackcaps ODI squad - his bowling's been ho-hum but he's scored runs! - while Southee still enjoys the good graces of key Blackcaps decision-makers, despite appearing to be on a slow and steady decline. Southee's a tried and trusted international bowler though, so I'm not as dramatic about his decline, it's just that he doesn't appear to be as dangerous as he once was. Now we can add the fact that Bracewell and Southee have been the most expensive bowlers in the Super Smash thus far.

They have both played just the one game, which needs to be kept in the forefront of your minds as they have not been able to rectify their wrongs and this is super small sample size alert. That however, doesn't take anything away from it being kinda funny that the lad who recently got called up to the Blackcaps and the lad who has a perception about him that he enjoys a free ride, are the only notable Super Smash bowlers to conceded over 14.50rpo; Southee's 15rpo and Bracewell's 15.5 has also come without a wicket between them.

We hold the Blackcaps battlers to a high standard, a standard which Matt Henry has maintained in his single game; 2w @ 6.66rpo. In all honesty though, the comedy sits in how the domestic deities match up against the Blackcaps battlers and the likes of Jacob Duffy, Andrew Ellis, Anurag Verma, Ben Lister and Hamish Bennett are holding it down for the Domestic Daily gang gang, putting the Battlers to shame.

There are some fringe lads who offer a dash of funk in Lockie Ferguson and Ben Wheeler; Ferguson's got 2w in 2 games @ 8.87rpo and Wheeler also has 2w in 2 games @ 12.85rpo.

The magical mark for me at this stage of the tournament is 3+ wickets and <10rpo, but please once again keep in mind that a few of these lads have only bowled once and the key thing is how they progress from this point onwards. View this as me highlighting seamers who have shown promising early signs and will be intriguing to observe as we see who emerges as a true-blue gun.

Bennett is an exception, given his exceptional rpo of 4.50rpo in Wellington's only game thus far vs Northern Districts. Bennett was Wellington's only seamer to concede less than 7rpo, while Jeetan Patel tightened the screws with 4.75rpo and Bennett made Anton Devcich look like a plonker:

Anurag Verma hasn't been sighted too much this season for Wellington after a wonderful Ford Trophy last season, he put up a solid 3w @ 9.25rpo in that win for the Firebirds alongside Bennett. Auckland's Ben Lister has also been jotted down in my black book as a bowler to keep tabs on closely after showcasing his out-swing to righties stuff in Plunket Shield and he's blended through the formats like coconut oil in a smoothie.

Lister has 3w in 2 games @ 8.50rpo and this is on the back of Lister taking 14w in 6 innings @ 18.14avg/2.81rpo in Plunket Shield - he only played a lone Ford Trophy game.

Otago's Jacob Duffy leads all wicket-takers thanks to his 5-for in Otago's only game (rain god said nah to Otago vs Wellington). Big shout to Canterbury's OG seamer Andrew Ellis who is 2nd in the rankings with 4w @ 7rpo after enduring a tough start to the season with injury, this is exactly what we've come to expect from Ellis and he'll finish the Super Smash near the top of the wicket-taker's list.

Ahead of this season, I wondered how Duffy would step up to the domestic plate if he could stay healthy and string games together. Once upon a time, Duffy burst on to the domestic circuit and led all Plunket Shield wicket-takers, then he went through a lean few years and has bounced back to a rather nek-level.

Everything about Duffy's season so far suggests that he will maintain this hot start and it's also encouraging that he is playing plenty of cricket. In PS, Duffy played 4 of 5 games and took 18w @ 23.44avg/3.32rpo, which had him ranked 7th although Lockie Ferguson was the only lad took more wickets in fewer innings than Duffy's 4inns (Ferguson only had 3inns).

Duffy then played in all 3 FT games and took 6w @ 19.33avg/5.80rpo, ranked 6th. Now he's started the Super Smash on fire and despite being Otago's 4th bowler used, Duffy dismissed all of Canterbury's top-4 and took a gorgeous catch. Young Duffy aka Young Josh Hazlewood;

Duffy certainly doesn't bowl slow and looked to hurry a few Canterbury batsmen as his catch came from high on Nick Kwant's bat and then he did the same to Matt Henry, while his yorker to bowl Michael Pollard was speared into Pollard's toes. There's also some natural movement that Duffy gets, traditional out-swing to a rightie that makes him tough to handle.

From what Duffy has done up to this point, there's no reason to think that he won't continue this form and we could be watching Duffy break the shackles. Many bowlers have struggled to swiftly breeze through the formats, while Duffy (and Lister) has had the same impact regardless of format and is currently my 'must watch that bloke' Super Smash bowler.

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Peace and love 27.