Having run through Auckland Aces vs Northern Districts Knights and then Canterbury vs Otago Volts from an Aotearoa A perspective, things get even funkier when taking a geeze at Central Districts Stag vs Wellington Firebirds. Despite ending in a draw with Wellington only batting once, a variety of players who have tasted A cricket over the last few months put up notable performances with a couple of angles to explore.

Not a whole lot happened for the Stags in their first innings, thanks to the work of Hamish Bennett who took 5w @ 1.95rpo. Bennett then took 1w @ 2.13rpo in the second dig and this is exactly what we have come to expect from the veteran seamer; such dominant form earned him a call up to Aotearoa A's one-day team who played three games vs India A.

Playing in all three games, Bennett continued his wicket-taking streak (at least 10inns with 1+ wicket across different formats) taking 2w, 2w, and 1w. Playing for Aotearoa A meant that Bennett was out of action for the previous round of Plunket Shield cricket and that gave Matt McEwan a chance to sneak up beside him at the top of the wicket-taking rankings. Both have 15w, however Bennett's averaging 15.20 vs McEwan's 19.53avg.

In Wellington's batting innings, Rachin Ravindra and Jimmy Neesham both passed 50. Ravindra has been a darling of the A set up this year, to the extent where this was his Plunket Shield debut. I found it a bit weird that Ravindra was called up to the A squad for the tour to United Arab Emirates having not played any domestic cricket, although it's easy to appreciate the slick development planning in place.

Ravindra delivered, with scores of 70, 27, 64 and 12* in the two four-dayers vs Pakistan A. The return leg in Aotearoa vs India A wasn't quite as productive (2, 16, 5), which was swept aside by Ravindra hitting 82 at the top of the order for Wellington. With five First Class games as part of Aotearoa A and then one Plunket Shield appearance, Ravindra is 19yrs averaging 39.71 via three 50+ scores in 8inns.

A lone innings in Plunket Shield isn't quite the same sample size as other A cricketers who slotted back into Plunket Shield to play the two games just gone and this sets up plenty of intrigue as to how Ravindra goes throughout the summer. First up it'll be bloody interesting to see if Ravindra dabbles in some Super Smash cricket and what T20 stuff he has, before we swing back around to Plunket Shield later in the summer.

Neesham's hot summer continues, with his second 50+ knock of the Plunket Shield. Maintaining his tremendous one-day form, Neesham hit 79* in the first of his two one-dayers vs India A before a knock of 3 in his next appearance and then 50 for Wellington in his return to Plunket Shield. This means that Neesham has three 50+ scores in his last 5inns and all three came in different formats as well; Ford Trophy, Aotearoa A, Plunket Shield.

Given his current form, Neesham should sizzle during the Super Smash and he'll be hoping to pass on the run-scoring flu to Wellington wicket-keeper Tom Blundell. Unfortunately for Blundell, he's only played four games this summer and three of those came in UAE before making his first Plunket Shield appearance vs the Stags in which he got a duck.

Blundell seems to be in an awkward spot and while it's difficult to suss out any injury issues etc, Blundell may have, or still be slipping down the highly competitive kiwi wicket-keeper rankings. Chill, I'm definitely not going all in on that idea as Blundell is still second to BJ Watling in the Test arena, but this is a narrative to keep an eye on as we wiggle through the summer.

This idea stems from the weird circumstance in UAE where Blundell's three Aotearoa A appearances were in each of the three formats - T20, one-day, four-day. Blundell was alright in each format and with scores of 18 (T20), 31 (LA), 26 and 20 (FC), Blundell appeared to adapt well between the different formats in a niggly little challenge for him.

Blundell's last 50+ score was for an Aotearoa 11 vs England, back in early March. Since then, Blundell has had 10inns with a highest score of 31 and while that's not ideal, I must stress that injury and a lack of playing one format consistently may be factors. With that in mind, wicket-keepers need to be performing to fight of the others and Blundell isn't trending in the right direction.

The low key wicket-keeper to keep an eye on, is Dane Cleaver and the Stags wickie is churning out the runs. Whether it's Cameron Fletcher, or Cleaver, these are the best examples of the wicket-keeping landscape right now. Cleaver hit 75* for CD in their second innings, after 15 in the first and this is all part of Cleaver's dominant Plunket Shield work this summer; 278 runs @ 55.60avg.

Cleaver played one four-dayer vs Pakistan A with scores of 4 and 0, then he got a gig in a four-dayer vs India A in which he hit 53. With a career First Class average of 40.22, Cleaver has always been the lad that no one really talks about when exploring Aotearoa's wicket-keepers and with the kiwi summer moving into T20 mode, the scene is set to see who can showcase their whackin' abilities.

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Peace and love 27.