Every summer in Aotearoa, there is a batsman or bowler who emerges to be the undisputed 'best that no one talks about' or otherwise known as the underground king and so far this summer it is looking as though Canterbury's Ken McClure is this geezer. In the latest cluster of Ford Trophy games, McClure hit back to back centuries vs Northern Districts Knights and while that's pretty darn impressive in itself, there's some funky layers to this to spice it up even further.

Across both the Ford Trophy and Plunket Shield, McClure is the only batsman who has hit two centuries and well, McClure now has three centuries. There is no batsman in the Plunket Shield's first stanza with two centuries either, nor is there a batsman who has two Ford Trophy centuries and while McClure's 165 in the Plunket Shield makes up the majority of his 246 runs that have him fifth in Plunket Shield runs, there are hefty signs that McClure's found a lovely garden patch of form.

This summer, McClure has batted in 7inns with three centuries. Squeeze that down to McClure's last 4inns batted and McClure has three centuries in those 4inns, across two different formats. Having played 36 First Class games since his debut in 2015, McClure has shown various glimpses of top-tier batting talent and an average of 39.96 reinforces that, now we have McClure stepping up in the Ford Trophy where McClure has only played 15 List-A games since his debut in 2016.

McClure's only 50+ scores in his 15 List-A games, are these two centuries. McClure has only played four T20 games as well, highlighting a path forward of batting growth for McClure as he has been on the domestic scene and featured in various Aotearoa A fixtures over the years without stacking up those white-ball domestic games.

McClure's first T20 game at this level? A 2016 North Island vs South Island game where McClure was joined by Jacob Duffy and Ish Sodhi as the only youngsters - Duffy and Sodhi had long been playing domestic cricket.

There is a classic, batsmanship element to McClure's batting that serves up the textbook dose of quick hands and delightful strokes. This obviously aligns with McClure playing most of his domestic cricket in the whites, however watching these recent highlights of McClure's centuries leads me to believe that there is legit scope for McClure to eat up runs across all formats this summer and beyond - when form deities permit.

The classical style opens McClure up to score runs all around the wicket and this is an interesting thought considering we view the T20 batting funk as reason for run-scoring all around the park, yet keeping the batsmanship simple can also be just as good. Drift down the pads, clipped down to fine leg. Bowl short, get whacked. Miss outside off-stump and there are various shots to make you pay. This is all cricket as we love it and McClure never really reaches to score his runs, which have come with a strike-rate of 104.43 in the Ford Trophy.

Excuse me while I suss out the 'back foot punch' Test for McClure? Yup, smooth and easy...

McClure's sixes came fairly easily in these two centuries as well, as he's got rapid hands and pounces on length quickly. First a hefty six off a short ball and then an effortless drive down the ground for a maximum...

This level of run-scoring has been hinted at for a while with McClure as he averaged 60.63 with two hundreds and three halfies in his first season of First-Class cricket back in 2015/16. McClure has played six seasons of FC cricket, with centuries in all but two of those campaigns and now this is the second season in a row where McClure is averaging 50+ in the Plunket Shield. Chuck in back to back Ford Trophy centuries and now we can look forward to how McClure navigates the Ford Trophy, plus how McClure fits in to Canterbury's Super Smash team.

Chad Bowes hit a century for Canterbury in this two game series vs ND, Jeet Raval also chimed in with his own century for the Knights while George Worker is the other century hitter after three/four games. Raval's got some funky notes to serve up...

10 seasons of List-A cricket for Raval and the first six seasons saw Raval average 30+ in just one season. Raval averaged 32.88 in his first LA excursion back in 2010/11 which then became five straight seasons averaging below 30.

Raval averaged 39.50 in 2015/16 and that's a smidge below 40, then Raval averaged 40+ in 2017/18 and 2019/20. Now Raval is averaging 51.50 in the Ford Trophy this season, giving Raval three straight seasons averaging 40+ in the Ford Trophy.

There are two other younger lads who are making Ford Trophy waves. First is Auckland's Will O'Donnell who has three 50+ scores in 4inns and these are the first LA 50+ scores of O'Donnell's career. Auckland Aces are 1-3 in their four games, sharing a win and a loss with Otago Volts in the latest cluster and O'Donnell is the only Auckland batsman who has scored 100+ runs so far. The weirdness here is compounded by the fact that Auckland's next best batsman is Ross ter Braak who has scored his runs batting #9 with a strike-rate of 108.10.

Whether it's O'Donnell's black batting gloves or funky batting stance/style, there is a vibe of O'Donnell being a frisky white-ball hitter. O'Donnell has essentially held the Aces batting line up together though and the lack of Auckland runs thus far, plus O'Donnell's strike-rate of 67.67 (which is the only strike-rate below 80 in the top-10) reinforce that.

Keep tabs of Northern Districts Knights batsman Katene Clarke who has scores of 63, 42, 3 and 56 so far in the Ford Trophy. Clarke is averaging 41/105.12sr after 4inns and last season's Ford Trophy saw Clarke average 31.77/93.15sr, with this clearly being his favoured format right now and the Knights have given Clarke the consistent role of opening with Raval which could see Clarke kick on further this summer.

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Peace and love.