Northern Districts Knights batsman Joe Carter was one of three players to pass 50 on the first day of Aotearoa's Plunket Shield round two and the Knights skipper went large with 146*. Carter's Knights comrade Colin de Grandhomme scored 40 of his 60 runs in boundaries against Otago Volts, while Auckland Aces batsman Mark Chapman scored 54 against Central Districts Stags. Canterbury, Auckland and Northern Districts all batted through their entire line ups on day one and three blokes passed 50; chur October cricket.

Slotting in at #3 for the Knights, Carter is becoming an up and coming batsman to keep tabs on as he is coming off two summers averaging 40+ and earlier this year in the penultimate game of last season, Carter hit two centuries vs Auckland Aces (Chapman hit two centuries in the same game). All up, Carter averages a handy 30.57 in First Class cricket and that's a solid base considering that Carter seems to have gone up a gear as he settles into his role with the Knights.

Carter is the first top-order batsman to hit a century this season and seems to be in a groove as he had no dramas middling the ball early in his innings. There didn't appear to be much juice in the Bay Oval pitch, although the Knights definitely didn't dominate and are on 334/9 overnight, so I'm not sure how much of this assessment is viable or just nice strokes on a flat deck. What Carter did do early in his innings was play freely through the off-side and the back-foot drives are always a sign of a slick operator...

Those shots were middled to the boundary and even when Otago seamer Michael Rae grabbed Carter's outside edge on the back foot, Carter's soft hands ensured there were no dramas. Writing this and admiring Carter's back-foot drives, soft hands and even how he swept Otago's spinners in Michael Rippon and Anaru Kitchen, visions of Kane Williamson appear; Carter even uses the Gray-Nicolls willow and is batting in Williamson's #3 spot.

Obviously Carter isn't Williamson, just some thoughts. There's an intriguing crew of batsman who are nearing a boil and while that crew is led by the likes of Devon Conway and Will Young, there are some low key lads for the cricketing hipster to cling to. Carter feels like he's moving into that bracket, probably a slither behind the Henry Cooper/Rachin Ravindra group and further behind the likes of Glenn Phillips, Mark Chapman etc. Up to you how you view all of this and where different lads rank, Carter's making moves though and deserves some attention.

There's also plenty of funk in the seam department as a combination of varying degrees of favourable conditions, good bowling and frisky early-season batsmen is resulting on seamers jacking up wickets. What I'm intrigued about is the spread of bowlers who have taken a baggy of wickets and how that sets up the summer.

Canterbury dismissed Wellington Firebirds for 115 via Fraser Sheat's 5w @ 2rpo, with support from Ed Nuttall's 3w @ 4rpo and Will Williams' 2w @ 1.33rpo. In the Stags vs Aces game, Doug Bracewell took 3w @ 1.13rpo and Seth Rance grabbed 3w @ 3.38rpo (Aces seamers could add to their tally today) and even while Carter was on his century path, Otago's Jacob Duffy took 3w @ 2.74rpo and Rae took 3w @ 5.47rpo.

Remember that Matt Henry's out injured at the moment and while that's got the Blackcaps Battlers thinking about ramifications higher up, Henry's absence led to Sheat coming into the Canterbury bowling unit and snaring 5w. That’s kinda what Sheat does though as he is averaging 24 in FC cricket after 10 games and took 2+ wickets in all but one of his last six innings of last summer.

Three seamers have taken 5w so far (1.1 games - 1 game, 1 day) and they are Sheat, Kyle Jamieson and Sean Solia. That's a weird mix, covering all aspects of seam bowling funk and I'm eager to see who from the wider group can maintain their standing among the best wicket-takers along with the likes of Williams, Nuttall, Doug Bracewell, Jacob Duffy and Danru Ferns; all of whom have started their campaigns nicely.

Sheat came into the Canterbury 1st 11 and his first wicket was Devon Conway, then Finn Allen before cleaning up the tail. Outside edge of the lefty Conway, outside edge of righty Allen...

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Peace and love.