As always, a whole lot of funky shit went down in the latest round of Plunket Shield cricket throughout Aotearoa and this is all headlined by three of the most talented young batsmen banging centuries. In the second innings of Central Districts Stags' loss to Otago Volts, Will Young hit 133* to push that game along and put up a target that the Volts chased down, Rachin Ravindra hit 101 alongside run-guzzler Devon Conway in Wellington Firebirds' only batting innings in their big win over Auckland Aces and Henry Cooper's 130 in Northern Districts Knights' second innings helped the Knights defeat Canterbury.

These were the only centuries of the round, although there were plenty of notable scores put up by other batsmen that I'll touch on throughout this debrief. I'll start with Young, who has only played seven notable games of cricket this summer and has quickly settled into the groove that saw him on the brink of a Blackcaps Test debut last summer. In these seven games (10inns), Young has passed 50 four times and in the Plunket Shield's second stanza, Young has scores of 68, 17*, 1, 22, 10 and 133*.

In pushing the tempo against Otago, Young dug deep into his bag of funky shots and scored at a strike-rate of 112.71, via 14 fours and 6 sixes. In scoping Young's boundary highlights, the time he had to set up these strokes caught the eye and as this wasn't a typical Plunket Shield innings because of the circumstances, we got a intriguing dose of Young's class. Here are some of Young's shots that tickled my toes...

Young now has 251 runs in 6inns @ 62.75avg, which puts Young 1 runs behind George Worker and Worker has batted in 12inns. This game also had Greg Hay scoring back to back halfies, with an 83 in the first innings followed by 76 in the second and this is excessively bonkers because Hay now has five consecutive 50+ scores in the Plunket Shield; Hay has scored all five of his 50+ Plunket Shield knocks this season in his last three games.

This is reminiscent of Hay's work in the summer of 2017/18 when he passed 50 in every Plunket Shield game he played and Hay is now 3rd in Plunket Shield runs with 454 runs @ 41.27avg. Stags all-rounder Brad Schmulian also continued his low key bonkers summer, scoring 68 in the first innings, although he didn't take a wicket with his leggies; when Schumlian scores runs, he tends not to take wicket and vice versa. Schmulian is 7th in runs, with 418 runs @ 52.25avg and five 50+ scores in 10inns. This takes his FC average to 41.60 and Schmulian has scores of 68* and 68 in his last 2inns.

For the Volts, Anaru Kitchen scores 73 in the first innings along with former Stags player Mitch Renwick hitt 74*. Dean Foxcroft hit 51 in the second innings and Michael Rippon hit 95* to take the Volts to an enticing victory, putting Rippon among the best batsmen in the Plunket Shield. With 2 not out innings in 7inns, Rippon has the best not out/innings ratio of notable batsmen and that's understandable as Rippon is batting around the #7 spot, all of which gives Rippon 364 runs @ 72.80avg.

Rippon is 9th in runs and is Otago's best batsman, which is even more impressive considering that Rippon also has 12w @ 23.33avg/3.07rpo - Rippon didn't take any wickets in this game. Here are Rippon's scores in his last three Plunket Shield games: 41*, 16, 78, 30, 6 and 90*.

Wellington Firebirds opener Rachin Ravindra's 101 put the Firebirds in a dominant position over Auckland, coming in what is now typically silky fashion from Ravindra. I'd suggest that Ravindra is the best batsman to watch when he's scoring runs as everything looks freakishly easy and in my last Plunket Shield offering I highlighted the work off his pads; fair but it doesn't do his class justice as he's beautifully brutal through the off-side as well.

Like the rest of these lads jacking up big boy runs, Ravindra has a run-scoring streak of his own with a 50+ score in each of the Plunket Shield's second stanza games. Ravidra has scores of 78, 27, 76, 17* and 101 through this stretch, taking him to 8th in runs with 414 runs @ 59.14avg. Averaging 38.91 in FC cricket, it won't be long until Ravindra's FC average is 40+ and that's my baseline marker for Aotearoa's best batting prospects.

Devon Conway's knock of 94 in conjunction with Ravindra's century were the only 50+ scores for Wellington in this game and Conway now has 701 runs. Obviously Conway is the only batsman with 700+ runs ... he's the only batsman right now with 500+ runs. There are some weird angles to this as Ravindra has the same 1 x 100, 3 x 50 split as Conway but lacks the triple-hundy that Conway has.

With 103 FC games to his name at just 28-years-old, Conway is averaging 47 for his career and that's rather good.

Auckland scored less than 200 in both their innings, with Sean Solia scoring 69 in the first innings while no other batsman passed 40. The second innings had Finn Allen scoring 66 and Louis Delport's 53*.

In a solid win over Canterbury, Knights opener Henry Cooper hit his third century of the season with 130. While Conway and Ravindra have the same century/half-century numbers, Cooper is the only batsman who has scored three centuries and given that he doesn't have any halfies, one could summise that when Cooper passes 50, he's going to pass 100.

Cooper is 2nd in Plunket Shield runs, with 499 runs @ 49.90avg and he's now averaging 39.11 in FC cricket. Cooper has also scored centuries in his last two games and his century in the second innings came with Tim Seifert's 51 (opening partnership), as well as BJ Watling's 71*. Watling scored 62 in the first innings as well, giving him his first two 50+ scores of the Plunket Shield (7inns), while Scott Kuggeleijn also whacked 72* in the first innings.

Canterbury also had a veteran hitting back to back half-centuries as Stephen Murdoch put up 56 and 55. Ken McClure hit 54 in the first innings, taking him to 314 runs @ 62.80avg and this is notable because as I've stated throughout this second stanza, McClure's Plunket Shield campaign started in the second stanza and the three games he has played have all featured hearty knocks; 152, 9, 98, 54 and 1. That's a 50+ score in each of his last three games/first three games of the Plunket Shield.

For the purpose of this exercise, I'm going to include McClure in this group of young-ish batsmen as he stacks up well against Young, Ravindra and Cooper. Here are their FC career numbers stacked together...

Will Young (CD): 74 games/123inns, 42.46avg.

Henry Cooper (ND): 25 games/45inns, 39.11avg. Rachin Ravindra (Well): 17 games/27inns, 38.91avg. Ken McClure: (Cant): 31 games/53inns, 38.58avg.

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Peace and love 27.