In one of the many personnel changes that came with the change in formart, Otago Volts re-jigged their opening combination with Brad Wilson dropping out and Rob Nicol sliding up the order. Nicol joined Hamish Rutherford and the two Volts batsmen came from very different Plunket Shield campaigns to churn out a nifty opening partnership that snatched the game away from Canterbury, scoring 175 of a required 222 runs.

This also coincided in Ben Stokes being a non-factor with the ball as Stokes opened the bowling and conceded 5.44rpo off 9ov, without a wicket.

Rutherford hit 100 and Nicol hit 78, with near-identical scoring rates as Rutherford had 81.30sr via 9 fours and a six, while Nicol had 82.10sr via 9 fours and a six. These similarities are rather strange given the disparity in their respective run-scoring during the first five rounds of PS cricket. For Rutherford, this was business as usual after he finished the first stanza 5th in PS runs with 424 @ 42.40avg, one of five batsmen to score over five runs in what was a strong start to the season for opening batsmen; Michael Papps and Greg Hay also had a jolly ol' time in that first stanza.

Nicol on the other hand averaged 10.

That's less that Otago all-rounder Shawn Hicks scored in one game and Nicol found himself in the definition of 'bad form' where not much goes your way at the crease. This definitely isn't the norm either, as it was Nicol who finished 5th in PS run-scoring last season, which when combined with this first-up FT innings is an example as to how there's no rhyme or reason to a lean patch of form.

And let's not pretend that it was only Nicol who got caught up the anti-runs virus. Neither Jimmy Neesham or Neil Broom passed 50 either, both averaging south of 28 which isn't ideal when you've been promoted from the Blackcaps to domestic cricket glory. While Nicol enjoyed a switch-up in the cricketing gods favour, Neesham and Broom's lean run continued as the scored a combined 6 runs vs Canterbury. As Neesham and Broom are batting #3 and #4, it'd be lovely for Otago if they could find some elusive runs to support their openers.

Which young-ish batsman stands up and demands attention through a plethora of FT runs is always a funky story to follow, especially given the extent to which Sean Solia exploded last season for Auckland. I can't see any unknown quantities such as Solia enjoying such run-scoring this season, other than Wellington's Devon Conway, although he's already rolled through a fair amount of domestic cricket in South Africa and that's the vibe I'm getting from the opening round.

Tom Bruce (56 @ 87.50sr), Nick Kelly (56 @ 86.15sr) and Tim Seifert (51* @ 94.44) all passed 50 while Glenn Phillips (48 @ 117.07sr), Cole McConchie (40 @ 86.95sr) and Rob O'Donnell (40* @ 83.33sr) also put up nifty scores. All these lads have been on the scene for at least a season, more like two or three for most of them and a dominator is likely to come from that pack.

As I'm heavy on this wicket-keeper/batsman buzz, I'd suggest that Seifert is primed to seal himself as one of the classiest batsmen in Aotearoa and he'd be my pick if I was forced to ride or die with that pick. That w-k buzz though has also seen me follow Auckland's Ben Horne closely and he got his FT campaign underway with 23* @ 109.52sr, so he's my low key pick to ruffle a few feathers in the status-quo.

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Peace and love 27.