Some folks love their Super Smash finals and we'll be glued to our computer screens as the Plunket Shield moves into its climax, but there's something about Ford Trophy finals cricket that just had me fizzing. A few tabs open on the browser, my vice of choice, some tunes flowing and hours of entertainment watching a six, four of wicket. Don't get me wrong as this could be made a whole lot better by the silly buggers running it all, I was content with bite-sized highlights of high-pressure cricket though.

Canterbury booked their place in the final with a win over Wellington, having set the Firebirds 251 to win and they then dismissed Wellington for 223 with three deliveries remaining. Canterbury's South African opening batsman Chad Bowes hit 84 and Todd Astle chimed in with 61, while Luke Ronchi was the top-scorer for Wellington with 63. Wickets were shared among the bowlers from both teams and Wellington now move on to face Central Districts, who beat Northern Districts by 48 runs.

And that's where I'm going to focus my attention for this thingy-ma-jig as there's plenty to sink the teeth into from that game. It's only right that I start with Tom Bruce who hit 100 off 81 balls and while I zoned in on the struggles and then return to form of Will Young (13), Bruce is following a similar path if only more interesting thanks to his recent Blackcaps call up.

Bruce went straight from the Blackcaps T20 team into the Ford Trophy and after the high of international cricket, Bruce then endured a slump as he rolled through six scores under 15 in seven innings'. In his fourth FT game of the season he did manage 50 and now in his last two games, Bruce has hit 70* and 100 with both innings' stamped by his signature brutality. First his 70 came off 53 balls and included 2 fours and 6 sixes, then his century came off 81 balls and once again featured more sixes than fours (6 fours, 8 sixes).

In his first seven innings' of the FT, Bruce scored 91 runs and in the last two innings' he's hit 170 runs. 

George Worker also chipped in with 79 opening the inning, taking him over 500 runs and he's the only batsman in the FT to do so. George's middle name is also apparently 'Herrick' and he's now hit four notable scores in the last six games, although his spin wasn't quite so good here as he took 1/33 off 3 overs @ 11rpo.

The spin of Ish Sodhi and CD's No.1 spinner Ajaz Patel was however rather handy, with the two kiwi-Indians out of Auckland taking 3 wickets each. Patel gets the minor points win though as his team won, he conceded 4.30rpo vs Sodhi's 4.60rpo and Patel's 3 wickets were all in CD's top-five (Popli, Anderson, Mitchell). Minor points win, but Sodhi's haul wasn't impressive as he dismissed Worker and then snapped through CD's middle order in dismissing Dane Cleaver and the dangerous Josh Clarkson.

That takes Sodhi up to 2nd in the wicket-taker rankings with 14 wickets @ 19.42avg/5.03rpo and while conversation has flowed about Sodhi working his way into a Blackcaps ODI team, the lad has been doing the business in the FT. Of the bowlers with 10 or more wickets, only Jimmy Neesham has a better strike-rate than Sodhi with the leggy taking a wicket every 23.1 deliveries.

Corey Anderson did well to hit 79 for ND, but all the funk sits with Scott Kuggeleijn who did a nice job with the ball in taking 1/47 @ 4.70rpo (he and Sodhi kept CD under 400) and then did his darnest to keep ND in the game. Kuggeleijn smoked 85* off just 52 balls, with 6 fours and 5 sixes (163.46sr) and ran out of partners capable of sticking around or giving it a whack themselves. 

Where Kuggeleijn finishes in the runs/wickets rankings could be skewed by ND being knocked out but right now, Kuggeleijn leads all bowlers with 17 wickets and is ranked 11th in runs. With 17 wickets @ 25avg, Kuggeleijn is also averaging 34.57 as a batsman while also owning a strike-rate of 106.14; Kuggeleijn is playing baseball. 

Only Worker comes close to Kuggeleijn's all-round production, ranked 1st in runs and 5th in wickets (12 @ 25.58avg). Bias will probably dictate who you think has the advantage here, I'm leaning towards Kuggeleijn's runs and his strike-rate giving him the nod.

Now we wait for Wednesday, when Wellington will host CD with the winner to face Canterbury next Saturday.