Ahead of these last two games, I threw up the idea of Cameron Fletcher, Rob O'Donnell and Daryl Mitchell laying down a serious claim for Josh Clarkson's 'The Finisher' title, if not already snatching the crown. It's kinda unanimous now, thanks to nifty knocks from Fletcher and O'Donnell in Auckland's win over Canterbury yesterday and while Mitchell didn't play in the recent cluster of games, his record is on par with Fletcher and O'Donnell.

Fletcher: 8 innings, 4 not-outs, 243 runs, 60.75 average, 147 strike-rate.
O'Donnell: 7inns, 5no, 231r, 115.50avg, 135.88sr.
Mitchell: 7inns, 4no, 219r, 73avg, 147.97sr.
Clarkson: 7inns, 3no, 129r, 32.25avg, 141.75sr.

The history behind Clarkson deserved a lot of respect, hence I've stuck with him for longer than I otherwise should have. We should also consider the performances of the respective teams here as you can't really be The Finisher, if you're team isn't winning many games and while Mitchell and O'Donnell have helped Northern Districts (1st, 6-2) and Auckland (2nd, 5-2) to the best records, there's not much separating Canterbury (3rd, 4-4) and Central Districts (5th, 3-4). That's to say that we'll have to wait for a Super Smash champion to be crowned before settling on The Finisher for the Super Smash.

O'Donnell is only 64 runs behind Mark Chapman and much of Auckland's Super Smash campaign can be simplified to Chapman doing the graft and O'Donnell finishing with the polish. The 23-year-old O'Donnell hit 55 off 42 vs Canterbury and that was his fifth 20+ score in 7inns - keep in mind that one of those sub-20 scores was a 12* and that's a positive in a finishing discussion.

Prior to O'Donnell top-scoring for Auckland, Fletcher top-scored for Canterbury with 46 off 42 and that's been the yarn of Canterbury's campaign. Fletcher is joined by Chad Bowes in the top-10 run-scorers, while the next best after them is Ben Stokes and Stokes scored 93 of his 133 runs in 1inns.

Fletcher has scored 20+ in 6 of his 8inns and while his overall runs tally is boosted by an extra innings, he's got the highest strike-rate of the three (Fletcher, O'Donnell, Mitchell). As the leader of the wicket-keeper batting funk discussion, it's also important to note that Fletcher has made up some lost ground in this discussion.

Tim Seifert's leading all Super Smash run-scorers and is scoring runs in all formats and Fletcher is 5th in Super Smash runs. Fletcher doesn't have the all-format aspect locked down just yet, but he could kick on from a strong Super Smash and do some things in Ford Trophy and Plunket Shield; strictly in Super Smash, Fletcher has put Glenn Phillips and Tom Blundell in his shadow.

Phillips and Blundell have both played fewer games (5inns), so they've got less runs but they haven't exactly been as dominant as you'd expect from recent internationals. Phillips is averaging 25.50/170.27sr and is playing second/third/fourth fiddle to Chapman, O'Donnell and Craig Cachopa for Auckland, while Blundell's averaging 16.80/116.66sr and has been out-gunned by Devon Conway's 28avg/140sr.

I have and will continue to drum up all sorts of hype around this wicket-keeper situation because it's that damn funky and I can't see that funk going away any time soon. All these dudes are young and they are scoring runs to such an extent that you can not ignore their batting prowess.

Let's compare two recent Blackcaps to finish with.

Seth Rance: 42 runs (1inns), 8w @ 13.62avg/8.38rpo.
Anaru Kitchen: 57 runs (5inns), 4w @ 34.50avg/9.85rpo.

You're smart enough to come up with your own conclusions about that comparison.

Peace and love 27.