Plunket Shield cricket is back in our lives and with a rather interesting bunch of lads scoring centuries, that's where I'll zone in on today. This is being whipped up Monday morning, prior to day three of these games and there has generally been a beautiful balance between bat and ball as Canterbury kept Wellington Firebirds to 316 in their first innings before Ken McClure's 110* made a hefty dent in that to have Canterbury 241/3.

Central Districts Stags had Northern Districts Knights all out for 271, currently sitting on 196/4 and Auckland Aces jacked up 467/6dec vs Otago Volts. via centuries to Martin Guptill and Glenn Phillips. Otago are currently 59/4 and as far as wickets across the three games go, Canterbury's Andrew Hazledine snared 4w @ 4.71rpo and CD's Blair Tickner took 4w @ 2.95rpo as he sent all of the Knights top-four back to the sheds.

McClure's century comes as his first major contribution of the summer, in his first Plunket Shield game of the summer. Having been on the circuit since 2015 and now 25-years-old, McClure endured a rough patch and this century marks a bounce back for one of Aotearoa's low key most talented batsman. Against a Firebirds attack that had Hamish Bennett back reppin' Wellington, McClure was quick to pounce on anything short and was joined not-out overnight by another young Cantab in Leo Carter (62*).

Averaging 35.76 after 28 First Class games, this was McClure's fourth century and what's bonkers here is that McClure's last century was back in the 2017/18 summer. There was another youngin' dabbling in runs in this game as well, with Rachin Ravindra hitting 78 up the top of Wellington's line up, along with Michael Bracewell's 87 and Jimmy Neesham's 61.

Ravindra has quietly cruised up to 6th in Plunket Shield runs with two 50+ scores @ 48.25avg and that's after Ravindra put up 200 runs @ 50avg/113.64 in his 4inns of Ford Trophy. Scatter in a strong Super Smash and steady Aotearoa A selection and Ravindra is quickly living up to his billing as a top-tier prospect.

Mercury retrograde has brought back a few intriguing domestic cricket names in McClure and Bharat Popli, with Popli scoring 62 for the Knights vs Stags. Popli batted #3 and like McClure, Popli has had a rough few summers which saw his run-scoring drop heavily and with Popli unable to crack the Knights white ball group consistently, we've been graced with sporadic Popli sightings.

Popli did manage an 85 in the first stanza of Plunket Shield cricket, now he's got his second 50+ score in 5inns and held the Knights innings together. Scott Kuggeleijn (60) and Ish Sodhi (48) chimed in with lower order runs and this flows into another young batsmen dabbling in run-scoring as Will Young's 68 and 69 from opener Greg Hay put the Stags in a strong position to cruise past the Knights total.

This was Young's first Plunket Shield game of the summer and since returning from injury, Young has scores of 62 (Ford Trophy), 54, 26 (FC vs India A), 2 (Three-dayer vs India A) and now this 68. Three 50+ scores in 5inns for Young and given that Young's form prior to getting injured was freaky, Young has picked up right where he left off.

Mark Chapman (52), Rob O'Donnell (61*) and Ben Horne (67) all passed 50, after Guptill and Phillips had gone large to have the Aces frothing. Right now, Guptill's batted 3inns and enjoyed two 50+ scores in the Plunket Shield and his knock of 110 was typically brutal...

Not too many batsmen around Aotearoa are going to tee-off to a slightly short-ish delivery like Guppy. If Phillips is hitting 102 as he did vs Otago, you know that you'll be entertained flicking through the boundary highlights...

Having earned Test call up in the shenanigans of the Test series vs Australia, Phillips has continued to build a compelling case for steady international opportunities. Phillips is in the top-10 for Plunket Shield runs this summer, after finishing third last summer and he'll be someone to keep an eye on through this Plunket Shield second stanza to see what kind of numbers he can put up.

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Peace and love 27.