Having observed and celebrated how Australia went back to back in dismantling Aotearoa at Eden Park, a Ford Trophy final at Pukekura Park presented a similar situation. Central Districts Stags play a lot of finals cricket as they have a wonderful talent pool, thus they play many big games at Pukekura Park where they should have an advantage; just like Aotearoa should be an unstoppable force at Eden Park.

I wrote how those T20 games at Eden Park were all about wickets and which team could take regular wickets, or more wickets would be victorious. Same goes for Pukekura Park and on a ground where runs tend to flow, against a team stacked with quality batsmen who have also played a lot of cricket on this ground, Auckland Aces stormed to a Ford Trophy championship by skittling CD for 197.

Auckland dismissed CD in 46.4 overs and CD only took 4 wickets as Auckland chased their target down in 32.4 overs. Auckland took 2w in the first 10 overs, CD didn't take their first wicket until they sent Jeet Raval back to the sheds in the 15th over with 84 runs already on the board. If you ain't keeping a steady flow of new batsmen to the crease on these types of grounds, batsmen who battle through the initial tough patch will make you pay and it's creepy how we've had two rather similar examples, albeit in different formats.

This caps of an extraordinary run for Auckland and jumping off from that desperate need for wickets is a lovely place to start as it sums it all up perfectly. Auckland took 10 wickets, CD took 4 and when you compare the two bowling attacks, you're left wondering how the bloody hell that happened?

#FordTrophy #Champions 🏆

A post shared by Auckland Cricket (@aucklandcricket) on Feb 23, 2018 at 9:23pm PST

CD rolled out Adam Milne, Seth Rance, Ben Wheeler, Ajaz Patel, Blair Tickner, George Worker and Doug Bracewell. That's four seamers who have played for Aotearoa this summer white ball cricket and then you have Tickner, who is making a comprehensive case for best bowler of the kiwi summer across all formats.

Ask your mates about Ben Lister and Jamie Brown and I doubt you'll get much in response. Domestic Daily readers will know because I've highlighted their emergence in this young Auckland team, meaning that while CD rolled out four fringe-Blackcaps Battlers, Auckland had two seamers who now have Ford Trophy championships in their debut seasons.

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A week ago, Glenn Phillips was a wicket-keeper. Now Phillips is conceding 2.75rpo off 4ov in a Ford Trophy final, after dismissing Tom Latham in the elimination final. Along with his bowling shenanigans, Phillips saved his highest score of the competition (63) in this final and he's under 25yrs.

Mark Chapman is currently the hottest batting prospect in Aotearoa and took 3w @ 5.12rpo in the final. Lister and Brown took a wicket each and with Chapman's 3w, these lads combined to take more wickets than the entire CD bowling unit. Lister, Brown and Chapman also just happened to all be under 25yrs.

Who was Auckland's best seamer in the Ford Trophy? Sean Solia, a name you might recognise from his glorious batting exploits in last season's Ford Trophy. Solia didn't take a wicket in the final but finishes with 11w @ 19.81avg/6.16rpo, which puts him behind Brent Arnel (19.05avg) and Mitchell McClenaghan (19.18avg) in the best averages of notable bowler rankings.

Auckland just won a Ford Trophy final without Mitchell McClenaghan!?

Craig Cachopa didn't have a fantastic Ford Trophy with the bat (29.77avg), but this is far less about his batting than it is about Cachopa leading Auckland to a championship as a 26-year-old skipper. The presence of a Cachopa in domestic cricket is a staple and with Carl no longer battling away and Brad falling behind 23-year-old wicket-keeper Ben Horne (and Phillips), we're suddenly down to Craig being the lone Cachopa rep in domestic cricket.

For the Cachopa clan, this is a righteous victory and Craig has stepped up to take the white ball reins for Auckland, producing a elimination final in the Super Smash and a Ford Trophy championship. Cachopa wasn't the skipper throughout the Plunket Shield earlier this summer, so it'll be interesting to see what happens there when that sparks up again. You can't argue with Cachopa's white ball captaincy record this summer, especially considering he is leading a team that mainly consists of players younger than him.

As young as this Auckland group is, they have enjoyed key performances from their three star players in Jeet Raval, Lockie Ferguson and Tarun Nethula.

I have spoken at length about Nethula's redemption arc and I may re-visit it if he can return to his Plunket Shield glory - all you need to know is that Nethula has executed a Jamie Lannister redemption arc in the space of four months. 2w @ 2.40rpo as the only Auckland bowler to get through his full 10 overs and the only Auckland player over the age of 30, Nethula finished as the leading wicket-taker of the Ford Trophy with 21w @ 21.95avg/5.84rpo.

Comparing Aotearoa's leggies is always fun; Nethula put Todd Astle in the shade (12w @ 33.66avg/5.24rpo) and you'd wonder what Rahul Dravid would have thought of Nethula's leggies had he seen them in the flesh. Ish Sodhi only had 4inns and took 7w @ 25.57avg/4.81rpo.

Being able to rely on Nethula's wickets, gave Auckland a rock to form their bowling attack around and give overs to the likes of Phillips, Solia, Chapman. Ferguson wasn't a rock in terms on wickets (10w @ 28.20avg), however Ferguson finished up as the most economical notable bowler with a stingey 4.25rpo. That blows out any wild-thing perceptions about Ferguson and Auckland benefited greatly from having Ferguson impact games, despite not blasting through teams as he has done previously.

Most importantly, Ferguson and Raval stood up in the clutch and rolled out their best performances when it mattered most. Ferguson took 3w @ 2.89rpo off 9.4ov in the final and that was his best return of the campaign, while Raval scored 196 of his 302 total runs in the last two games - an elimination final and grand final.

Auckland wouldn't have cracked the grand final if Raval hadn't hit 149 vs Canterbury and he played a genuine leadership knock there, before hitting 47 in the final with a better strike-rate than his opening homie Phillips; 87.03sr vs 84sr. Shit matey, take that one step further and know that while Phillips has been pigeon-holed as a T20 blaster by Lesson, Phillips' Ford Trophy strike-rate (4th in runs overall) of 74.94 isn't jack compared to Raval's 81.40sr.

Ferguson and Raval were thrusted into OG status in this Auckland team, while Nethula's effectively a grandpa compared to the youngsters that form the majority. Somehow this group came together to upset two excessively experienced (and very talented) teams in Canterbury and Central Districts to snatch a Ford Trophy championship.

I picked against Auckland in either game and their achievement can't be over-stated. It's fuckin' crazy folks and I'll remember this as the summer of the Auckland youngsters.

Some would suggest that this is reflective of the young wave of cricketing talent that is sweeping Aotearoa. Well, I do anyway.

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Peace and love 27.