Super Smash are coming thick and fast, so stay tuned in Domestic Cricket Daily over the next couple of weeks as I squeeze little things in-between clusters of games. This thingy is coming at you after games #7 (Wellington Firebirds lost to Northern Districts Knights) and #8 (Canterbury Kings win over Central Districts Stags), while ND take on Otago Volts today and Christmas Eve brings Auckland Aces vs Wellington Firebirds.

Like a real underground sports media gangsta, I'll drop another Domestic Daily on Christmas Day on the back of those two games.

With such a difference in games played for various players, going into stats and bowling/batting rankings gets weird. I'll have to wait until those numbers even out a wee bit, leaving me to explore a few selection bits and bobs that have tickled my toes. 

Other than bumping Brett Hampton up the order to bat #4, ND offered some funk in selecting Peter Bocock to bat down the order. Bocock was joined by Nick Kelly in batting #7 and #8, while Hampton batted further the up the order and that's a low key interesting batting tactic from ND; Hampton's the big hitter while Bocock and Kelly access the boundary in slicker ways later on in the innings.

Kelly could only manage 2 off 7, while Bocock hit 29 off 23 and all 3 of Bocock's boundaries came in funky fashion:

Bocock did feature for a few Super Smash games last season and also played a Ford Trophy game. He's likely to play consistently from here on, with the injection of BJ Watling or Tim Southee possibly knocking Bocock back down the pecking order. 

This game also saw Wellington's Devon Conway play his first Super Smash game and he smoked 53 off 36 balls. Watching Conway's boundaries, it's easy to see his class and youz know that I've been talking him up a fair bit this summer. First game and he puts up a notable score @ 147.2sr, so stay tuned for what Conway does over the holiday period at the top of the order and whether he and Tom Blundell feature in the same Firebirds XI.

Conway replaced Blundell in this game, with Blundell opening in game #3. Blundell only scored 4 off 9 in that game vs ND and now with Conway snapping up his opportunity with another impressive knock, Blundell may have to slot in elsewhere. I warned youz that Conway's batting was going to create a conundrum and with Conway and Blundell both offering plenty with the willow, one of the other batsmen may have to make way. 

Youz know how I'm feeling about the wicket-keeper funk in general and with Cameron Fletcher putting up another nifty score for Canterbury vs CD, we now have three wicket-keepers in the top-5 run-scorers and that doesn't include Conway. Fletcher hit 43 off 23 @ 187sr and has a monstrous overall strike-rate of 185.71, which is a smidge below Auckland wicket-keeper Glenn Phillips' 190.56.

With Bocock in ND's team, they have two wicket-keepers (Seifert and Bocock), three if you included BJ Watling. Wellington have Conway and Blundell, while Auckland have Phillips and Ben Horne. All those blokes are fine batsmen and then add in Fletcher and Dane Cleaver and omg.

Against Canterbury, CD rolled out a super young squad without their OG veterans. Seth Rance, George Worker and Doug Bracewell were called up to the Battlers, while Jesse Ryder didn't play. That resulted in the Stags playing with only two players over 27years;

Dane Cleaver - 25yrs
Ben Smith - 26yrs
Will Young - 25yrs
Tom Bruce - 26yrs
Christian Leopard - 20yrs
Josh Clarkson - 20yrs
Ben Wheeler - 26yrs
Bevan Small - 25yrs
Ryan McCone - 30yrs
Ajaz Patel - 29yrs
Blair Tickner - 24yrs

And the two older players in that CD team both joined CD from other associations with McCone making the move up from Canterbury and Patel moving from Auckland. That's what you call a farm system folks.

This game also marked the return of Ed Nuttall, who got through his 4ov with 1w @ 7rpo. We haven't seen too much of Nuttall in the past 12 months and his return is a big boost for a depleted Canterbury seam bowling stable - that resulted in Canterbury heading over to Australia and picking up Daniel Sams. 

Sams is now playing for Sydney Sixers, after he made the move from Sydney Thunder's farm to their Sydney rivals. Shout out Mitchell McClenaghan as well, I'll suss out his work for Sydney Thunder in a couple of days.

In his debut Big Bash League game, Sams took 4w @ 3.50rpo off his 4 overs and while he didn't do anything with the bat (0*), Sams averaged 40.16 @ 103.43sr in three games for Canterbury, three Plunket Shield games that is; watch out for the man Sams in BBL.

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Peace and love 27.