Aotearoa's 2019/20 Super Smash is underway for the domestic T20 tane and wahine, offering a lovely opportunity to assess the T20 landscape. At this pre-Christmas juncture, we have a daily menu on the men's side and a more sporadic offering on the women's side, then things get more frequent on the women's side during the holidays. This makes it niggly to offer insight on performances, so what I'll do is drop a couple of notes for both competitions in a hard and fast format as frequently as possible.

Right now, I'm less concerned with what teams are up to and this will change as we get closer to finals cricket. I'm more interested in individual trends and any insights available across the domestic competitions. NZC offers basic stats for both competitions, but it gets tricky as my favourite source of statistics in Cricinfo is fairly slow on updating the Women's Super Smash information. I simply prefer the depth and lay-out of Cricinfo's stats, plus the next WSS game isn't until next Saturday so I'm going to give Cricinfo another day or two to catch up then I'll assess how things are looking.

Here’s some WSS stuff...

As of Tuesday morning, Otago Volts and Northern Districts Knights are only teams who have played two games. Otago's Nathan Smith took 5 wickets @ 3.81 to not only dismantle the Knights in their Monday night encounter, Smith went to the top of the wicket-taking charts with 7w @ 7.56rpo. Remember that Smith hit his first First-Class century in the Plunket Shield's first stanza, as well as sitting 4th in Ford Trophy wickets (9w @ 18.66avg/4.34rpo).

Otago's got a low key solid line up and Smith is shaping as a crucial figure, regardless of whether Otago bump him up the order or bat him lower down. There is a core of experience with Hamish Rutherford, Neil Broom, Anaru Kitchen, Michael Rippon and Jacob Duffy, then sprinkled on top are the youngins; Nick Kelly, Dean Foxcroft, Josh Finnie and Smith. As a T20 unit, I'm eager to see how the contributions of the younger lads pan out over a longer period of time because right now, they've fired some shots.

Foxcroft and Finne both went 40+ with 150+ strike-rates vs ND, while Kelly also chimed in with 37 @ 142.30. Combine that with Smith's dominant bowling performances and there are signs that the Volts could be a funky team moving forward, especially given that Kelly, Foxcroft, Finnie and Smith have all showcased their talents in all formats across recent seasons.

Broom led the way for Otago to get a win over Auckland Aces in their first game, hitting 93 @ 163.15sr and is currently 1st in runs. With support from Rutherford's 52 @ 226.08sr, Otago leaned on that experience to set a 200+ target and now have wins over the Aces and Knights - two teams who look lovely on paper.

The work of Foxcroft is also enticing, with scores of 36 and 44 and an overall strike-rate of 173.77. Foxcroft took that Volts total over 200 vs Auckland batting #6 and cracking his 36 @ 200sr, before jumping up to bat #4 vs Knights and in different game situation, Foxcroft rolled out the same shit with 44 @ 176sr.

Foxcroft is 21-years-old and through 11 games he is averaging 31.81/134.09sr. That's rather impressive and in following these Super Smash diaries, you'll note that there are markers that I use in assessing a player or a performance; anyone averaging over 30 with a decent strike-rate is doing damn well.

Otago's Josh Finnie loves a whack. In last summer's Ford Trophy, Finnie stood out with his 112.25sr and 14 sixes hit, which put him in the top-tier of sluggers. Jimmy Neesham was the only batsman to hit more sixes than Finnie (19) and another noted slugger in ND's Brett Hampton was the only batsman who had a higher strike-rate than Finnie (119.91sr).

Right now, Finnie's MSS strike-rate is 227.27 and only Martin Guptill's 255.55sr is better for notable batsman. Here are the batsmen so far who have 30+ runs and 200+ strike-rate...

George Worker (CD - one game): 42 runs @ 210sr.

Martin Guptill (Auck - one): 46 runs @ 255.55sr.

Josh Finne (Otago - two): 50 runs @ 227.27sr.

Hamish Rutherford (Otago - two): 61 runs @ 217.85sr.

Auckland's Glenn Phillips is the only play so far to bang 100+ and he did so with a strike-rate of 173.77. This is exactly the start Phillips would have wanted individually (Auckland lost) and my insights on Phillips will tend to focus on his prowess as a general batsman, not solely as a T20 blaster.

Here are Phillips' scores this summer across all three formats in order...

Plunket Shield: 51, 13, 21.

Aotearoa A: 116, 36.

Ford Trophy: 26, 40, 156, 66.

Super Smash: 106*.

I have steadily discussed Phillips output across all formats and without regurgitating everything; this is merely a continuation of Phillips' trend.

I'm also partial to sussing the spinning shenanigans. There are four spinners in the top-10 for wickets and the work of Ajaz Patel catches the eye, considering how most people would view 'T20 spinners' in Aotearoa.

Jeetan Patel is the best so far with 3w @ 4rpo and as a legend across all formats, that's kinda to be expect. Cole McConchie has 3w @ 4.50rpo and his all-round abilities have been a instrumental for Canterbury in recent campaigns, while Ish Sodhi also has 3w @ 8.12 and he is viewed as a premier T20 spinner in Aotearoa.

Patel on the other hand, tends to be viewed as a Plunket Shield tweaker based on him being in and around the Blackcaps Test squad. T20 is kinda Patel's best format though as it's the only format in which he averages under 30, and his 22.22avg/7.96rpo is worthy of underground king status.

To set the spinner landscape further; Sodhi's trying to hold on to his World T20 spot, Auckland's Will Somerville has played BBL cricket and someone like Wellington's Rachin Ravindra has a high ceiling as a batting all-rounder and could tap into that potential under the guidance of Lord Jeetz. Don't sleep on the Ajaz though.

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Peace and love 27.