If any of you domestic cricket freaks around Aotearoa wanted big boy runs, that's exactly what round four of the Plunket Shield served up. As I explored earlier in the week, this started with centuries to Auckland's Martin Guptill, Glenn Phillips and Canterbury's Ken McClure. Then we had an explosion of runs from batsmen who have hinted at such performances throughout the summer and as I'll discuss below, the key thing about these lads who went large in the last few days is that there is a clear trend for each bloke.

Immensely positive trends. As always, I'm going to attack this round of Plunket Shield from different angles so stay tuned for those prior to the next round starting on Sunday. Today, it's all about Nick Kelly's 118 for Otago Volts in their draw against Auckland Aces, Dane Cleaver's 201 for Central Districts in their win over Northern Districts Knights and Leo Carter's 226* as Canterbury smoked Wellington Firebirds.

Carter scored the most runs, so let's start there. Many would remember that Carter hit six sixes in a Super Smash over earlier in the summer and while that's lovely, Carter's best format is quite clearly First Class cricket where he averages 32.66. Compare that to averaging below 20 in List-A and T20 stuff, then add Carter averaging 39.85 in last summer's Plunekt Shield with two 50+ scores in 7inns and Carter appears to have found a home in the the whites for Canterbury.

What's interesting here is that Carter instantly moves into 2nd spot behind Tom Latham for Canterbury's run-scorers this summer. Latham featured in all three games of the Plunket Shield's first stanza and also hit a double-hundy, which has him ranked 4th in total Plunket Shield runs with 267. Carter is 6th with 226 runs and then Cole McConchie is next down in 20th.

McClure's century puts him in 4th for Canterbury's runs, ranked 24th. This game was the first Plunket Shield game of the summer for Carter and McClure, while Latham and McConchie weren't playing in this game. Bit of a weird scenario that, which perhaps speaks to a lack of big runs to this point from the Canterbury batting line up and this was then flipped around with two talented youngsters grabbing plenty of runs.

These two are rather talented ...

Ken McClure: 29 games (FC), 38.40avg, 4 x 100, 6 x 50.

Leo Carter: 26 games, 32.66avg, 2 x 100, 9 x 50.

Ultimately, this summer has been all about Nick Kelly and Dane Cleaver though who have both hit respective nek levels. Kelly's century was the only 50+ score for Otago in both their innings against Auckland and it takes Kelly up to 10th in Plunket Shield runs - not too shabby for your first FC century.

Remember that this is Kelly's first season with Otago, having moved south from ND and the move has worked wonders for Kelly. Finishing 9th in Ford Trophy runs (34avg/90.77sr), Kelly also had a strong Super Smash with 44.22avg/139.64sr and that saw Kelly finish 3rd in Super Smash runs. Despite not being 1st across all formats like Devon Conway, Kelly has gone from being a white ball cricketer for the Knights to currently sitting in the top-10 across all three formats for runs.

This also has Kelly as the leading run-scorer for Otago and Kelly's leading a younger Plunket Shield batting wave for Otago as their best three batsmen are all near the start of their careers; Kelly, Nathan Smith and Dean Foxcroft. These 50+ score vs innings batted splits show that Kelly hasn't been super duper dominant...

Plunket Shield: 1/5.

Ford Trophy: 3/11.

Super Smash: 4/10.

What is clear though is that Kelly's hit a nek level and is obviously enjoying his time with the Volts. Kelly got plenty of attention during a strong Super Smash campaign and now we are seeing him spread runs across all formats, showing that he has far more to offer than doing some whack whack in T20 cricket.

On February 8th I reflected on Dane Cleaver’s nifty summer to that point, right after Cleaver put up scores of 196 and 53 in back to back innings of the four-dayers vs India 'A'. Cleaver then scored 13 in Aotearoa 11 tour match prior to the Test series and returned to normal service with 201 @ 90.13sr against the Knights and a brutal knock of 38 @ 211.11sr, to ensure a swift victory in the second innings. Here are some numbers from Cleaver's summer so far...

Plunket Shield: 2nd, 8inns, 378 runs @ 47.25avg/74.55sr, 1 x 100, 1 x 50.

Ford Trophy: 16th, 5inns, 308 runs @ 51.33avg/90.58sr, 1 x 100, 1 x 50.

Super Smash: 9th, 10inns, 278 runs @ 27.80avg/139sr, 1 x 50.

Four-dayers vs India A: 2nd, 2inns, 249 runs @ 124.50avg/52.86sr, 1 x 100, 1 x 50.

Factor in that Cleaver was 5th in Plunket Shield runs last summer with 527 runs @ 43.91avg/46.51sr and 1 x 100, 5 x 50. Sprinkle on top of that some of Cleaver's 14 sixes in this summer's Plunket Shield, which isn't just the most sixes hit, it's also Cleaver being the only batsman who has hit 10+ sixes.

Cleaver's FC average has jumped up from 40.52 at our last check in, to 42.92 and this is the type of work that demands further opportunities at higher levels. Many view the wicket-keeper situation as being clearly defined with BJ Watling leading Tom Blundell and Tim Seifert as the main options with different formats impacted the hierachy. One would be wise to factor in Cleaver to this equation in some capacity and if Cleaver can continue to put up freaky numbers, he may put a whole lot of pressure on Seifert and Blundell in white and red ball cricket.

Bonus nugget...

After the Ford Trophy finished, I wrote a bit about Auckland Aces spinner Louis Delport who replaced Will Somerville. Delport finished with 11w @ 28.27avg/4.64rpo to play a crucial role in the Aces run to the Ford Trophy final, taking 2+ wickets in five straight games prior to the final. Delport then took 5w @ 2.75rpo in the first innings vs Otago, followed by 3w @ 1.91rpo in the second innings and that was his first Plunket Shield outing of the season.

Featuring Delport skittling the stumps of Neil Broom in both innings...

Delport immediately goes to the top of the pile for spinners in the Plunket Shield (along with Brad Schmulian and Dean Foxcroft, all of whom are kiwi-Africans) with that 8w haul and I'll hold off from comparing his numbers the other notable spinners until he's got a few more games to work with. Delport has however had a swift impact with the Aces and this has flowed beautifully into Plunket Shield cricket.

I've also kept my domestic cricket nerd goggles tuned into CD Stags all-rounder Brad Schmulian. Schmulain has some of the craziest domestic cricket numbers that nobody talks about and the latest twist on this is Schmulian sitting 3rd in runs with 278 runs @ 46.33avg and 15th in wickets, tied with Delport on 8w @ 18.50avg/2.81rpo. Schmulian is averaging 40+ with the bat and sub-20 with the ball.

This is aligned with Schmulian's career FC numbers: 39.13avg with the bat and 25avg with the ball. Only two players have three 50+ scores in the Plunket Shield right now and that's Schmulian and another of his kiwi-African homies Mr Conway.

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Peace and love 27.