Auckland Aces and Otago Volts grabbed first round wins in the Ford Trophy, while a couple big centuries headlined the scratched contest between Canterbury and Central Districts Stags. Auckland were too slick for Wellington, dismissing the Firebirds for 191 in 44.5 overs which Auckland managed to chase down in 39.2ov and Otago grabbed a win over Northern Districts Knights after putting up 282 in the first innings, before ol' mates Duckworth and Lewis saw them win with the Knights on 226/8 in 44.2ov.

The Stags went large batting first thanks to George Worker and Ben Smith hitting hundies, bumping CD up to 349/4. Unfortunately Canterbury were only batting for 2.4 overs before this game was abandoned, which is a bummer because it would have been interesting to see the Cantab batsmen chase down a big target.

Worker hit 135 @ 108.87sr, while Smith came in at #3 to blaze 100 @ 113.63 and then Tom Bruce gave it an almighty whack with 56 @ 200sr. This was largely the same bowling attack Canterbury used in Plunket Shield, with the inclusion of Andrew Ellis and the narrative to watch out for here is how the Cantabury bowling attack is going to take 10 wickets and restrict their opponents scoring. None of that went down vs Worker, Smith and Bruce, presenting a few trends for those CD batsmen.

Worker is kinda century or nada this season. In six Plunket Shield innings, Worker has a century and then five scores under 20, which flows into two centuries in 7inns this season. List-A is Worker's best format as he averages 43.12 and tends to enjoy cracking the white ball, so I'm not overly surprised by Worker's start - which is a wee bit different to Smith.

Smith came into Ford Trophy with two 50+ scores in 6inns and while he averages early-30s in both formats, his List-A strike-rate of 79.42 is more in keeping with Smith's general style. For Smith to hit 100 @ 113.63 is pretty funky, especially considering Smith maintained a high strike-rate while hitting just 48 runs in boundaries, meaning that Smith maintained a high strike-rate through his craft.

Both Worker and Smith sit in decent form to start the season, much like Tom Bruce. To add to the weight of Bruce's run-scoring, he's scored recent runs across all three formats; 53 in his lone T20I appearance in Sri Lanka, scores of 71*, 60, 11 and 25 in Plunket Shield then 56 in Ford Trophy. Don't just view Bruce as a short-form whacker as he does the job in any format and that's why I'd throw Bruce up as domestic cricket nerd's favourite batsman, don't sleep on Mr Bruce.

Nick Kelly hit 120 @ 86.33 opening for Otago Volts, against his old team ND Knights. Kelly led the Volts and was dismissed in the 47th over, which is a great start to Ford Trophy for Kelly after he showed promising signs during Plunket Shield with Otago. The Volts also got great service from Josh Finnie, who hit 58 @ 92.06 in the middle order and this was Finnie's first appearance of the season after missing out on Plunket Shield stuff.

One thing about Finnie is that he's a six-hitter. Finnie hit 5 sixes in this innings and last summer's Ford Trophy saw Finnie hit 14 sixes, as one of four batsmen to hit 10+ sixes and Finnie finished 2nd to Jimmy Neesham's 19 sixes in the six count.

The Knights shared their wickets among their seam bowlers; Brett Randell had 4w @ 5.90rpo, Zak Gibson had 2w @ 4.80rpo and Anurag Verma had 3w @ 5.70rpo. How the younger Knights seamers progress through Ford Trophy will be crucial to their success and Verma's appearance should offer a splash of experience to their bowling unit.

Minor note: Ish Sodhi went for 6.40rpo in his 10 overs without a wicket. In isolation, that's no dramas but Sodhi is currently stuck in a form slum that goes back to the tour or Sri Lanka. Since the start of the Sri Lanka T20I series (2 vs Sri Lanka, 1 Plunket Shield, 5 vs England T20I, 1 Ford Trophy), Sodhi has taken 2+ wickets just once and of those 9inns, Sodhi has gone wicket-less in 6inns.

Henry Cooper scored 75 for ND Knights, while no other batsman could pass 30. Cooper batted #5 which is funky considering he opens in Plunket Shield and this was Cooper's first 50+ List-A knock. That Cooper averages 14.50 in List-A cricket tells you where he's at in the multi-format run-scoring, but this is a great start and it's notable that Cooper appears to have found his spot in the middle order.

Otago all-rounder Nathan Smith took 3w @ 3rpo, while Michael Rippon's lefty-leggies took 3w @ 4.30. Smith also batted #4 and this is a continuation of his all-round prowess, with the Volts likely to require steady contributions from Smith with bat and ball.

No centuries in Auckland's win over Wellington, thanks to some enticing bowling. Ben Lister didn't crack the Aces Plunket Shield team and managed 5w @ 2.30rpo in his 7.5ov, as he an another seamer making their first appearance of the summer Danru Ferns (3w @ 5.14rpo in 7ov), dismantled the strong Firebirds batting line up. I've talked a lot about Lister's ability as a lefty to move the ball away from right-handers, into left-handed batsmen and it seems to be doing the trick considering Lister averages under 30 in all formats.

Jamie Gibson was the leading Firebirds batsman with 64 @ 64.64sr. Sean Solia and Rob O'Donnell matched Gibson's work for Auckland, with Solia hitting 65* and O'Donnell 64 which was enough to steer the Aces to victory. Solia struggled in Plunket Shield, with scores of 1, 0 and 25, but he kept contributing with the ball and I'm going to be keeping a close eye on Solia's all-round stuff, especially in comparing how he goes vs Nathan Smith.

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Peace and love 27.