Over in the Caribbean tomorrow, Scott Kuggeleijn's Zouks will take on the undefeated Knight Riders who will definitely have Tim Seifert in their playing and maybe Colin Munro in the Caribbean Premier League final. Munro's missed a few games recently via injury, so he may not be available for the final and of course it would be great to see Munro and Seifert together in a final, but the Knight Riders are undefeated for a reason and that's due to their rather talented line up.

Munro hasn't played since September 2nd and he's still chillin' tied for 10th in run-scoring with 207 runs @ 34.50avg/133.54sr. As an example of the Knight Riders batting talent, Kieron Pollard also has 207 runs but with 51.75avg/204.95sr and then Darren Bravo and Lendl Simmons both have 230+ runs. So, how has wee Timmy Seifert performed in what could be the best learning experience of his career to date?

Waikato's Seifert has low key done his job admirably and wasn't required to bat in the Knight Rider's semi-final, stacking up 129 runs @ 25.80avg/108.40sr. In Seifert's 8inns, there are 3 not-outs and that's a handy little note as Seifert tends to bat in the middle order where he can wrap up an innings. How Munro and Seifert deal with Zouks' leading bowler in Kuggeleijn will be an interesting aspect of the final - not only for the kiwi factor but Kuggeleijn's tied for 1st in wickets with a chance to take the top spot for himself in the final.

After a minor plateau, Kuggeleijn took 2w in each of his last two outings and one of those was against the Knight Riders. Kuggeleijn hasn't dismissed Munro or Seifert in the CPL though, but did knock the top off the Amazon Warriors batting line up in the semi-final as he snared 2w in the first over, including Shimron Hetmyer (3rd in runs) and was sitting on a hat-trick; Zouks rolled Ross Taylor's Amazon Warriors for 55.

Recent wickets have Kuggeleijn tied with 19-year-old Afghanistan spinner Mujeeb Ur Rahman for wickets, with Kuggeleijn taking 16w @ 14.75avg/7.82rpo. The Zouks also have West Indian seamer Kesrick Williams 4th in wickets and veteran Afghanistan spinner Mohammad Nabi 5th in wickets, meaning that the Zouks aren't reliant on on bowler and with my Kiwi-CPL goggles on, this may help Kuggeleijn against a powerful batting line up as he'll be the bloke wizzing a few past the batsmen's shoulders, mixed in with his change-ups.

I'll save some bigger picture ideas for when we roll into the domestic season, although Kuggeleijn's work in the CPL could signal a hefty push up the kiwi bowling rankings. I was curious about Kuggeleijn's CPL campaign as there is a decent list of younger seamers who have either over-taken Kuggeleijn in the case of Kyle Jamieson, or not too far away with dominant domestic work. Kuggeleijn's ticked the CPL box and this sets up an enticing start to the kiwi summer as there will be numerous seamers hungus to snap up big wickets.

The semi-final losers were Glenn Phillips and Ross Taylor. Taylor scored 3 as his batting line up was decimated vs Zouks and this wraps up a weird ol' tournament for Taylor that felt more like an elongated warm-up session for the kiwi summer. Taylor didn't score higher than 30 in his 10inns, yet he did have four scores in the mid-20s and a trio of not-out innings. Nothing crazy, nothing terrible and Taylor keeps it moving.

Phillips on the other hand is 1st in runs and 44 runs ahead of Simmons, so there is still a chance that Phillips finishes 1st in runs. Phillips scored 2 in the semi-final vs Knight Riders and has 316 runs @ 35.11avg/127.41sr, a strike-rate that is the best of the top-five in runs. Remember that Phillips finished 2nd in CPL runs in 2018 and 4th in runs in 219, making this three years in a row in which Phillips has finished in the top-five for CPL runs.

There is plenty of context notable context around Phillips to ponder, starting with Phillips being the best Kiwi-CPL batsman and the fact that he made his Test debut last summer. As a 23-year-old, Phillips averages 30+ in First Class, List-A and T20 cricket, which can't be overlooked as a nifty marker of batsmanship. Phillips' FC average of 39.62 is the funkiest though and there is every chance that Phillips could work his way into what I'm whipping up as an NBA shooting stat; 40-35-30 average triplet.

Average 40+ in FC cricket, average 35+ in LA and 30+ in T20.

As long as the strike-rates are aligned, that breakdown reflects the challenges laid out by each format. For example, Phillips T20 average should be the lowest ... as long as he has a good strike-rate and he's cruising with 134.33sr; as the average drops, the strike-rate should increase.

Any way, I merely love the fact that there is bloke who is 23yrs and is a shade below that 40-35-30 marker. Everyone's buzzing about Devon Conway's Blackcaps availability and Will Young's still knocking on the door, there are youngins like Rachin Ravindra making waves and Phillips can not be slept on in any discussion about kiwi batsmen looking to crack consistent Blackcaps cricket.

Mitchell Santner's CPL finished with him scoring 145 runs @ 48.33avg/115.07sr and taking 6w @ 23avg/5.59rpo in a generally solid campaign. That batting average is 48 because Santner had 5 not-outs in his 8inns, while the funk with the ball involves this group of Aghanistan and Nepal spinners who brushed aside the more fancied Blackcaps spinners to dominate the CPL.

Take Santner's Tridents comrade in Afghanistan's 21-year-old leggy Rashid Khan who took 11w @ 22.63avg/6.63rpo.

Tallawahs spinner Sandeep Lamichhane finished with 12w @ 17.58avg/5.27rpo - he's 20yrs from Nepal.

Ur Rahman is another Tallawahs spinner and he took 16w @ 13.56avg/5.29rpo - he's 19yrs from Afghanistan.

Chur to the veterans as well. I mentioned Nabi and along with Aussie Fawah Ahmed (11w @ 19.45avg/6.48rpo) and Imran Tahir (15w @ 15.93avg/5.82rpo, these three were also strong performers. That's six spinners from around the cricketing world, three youngsters and three veterans who were all in the top-10 for wickets.

Meanwhile, Santner took 6w and Sodhi took 2w. All those spinners named above, took more wickets as individuals, than Santner and Sodhi combined. I'm not sure if this means anything as there were various elements at play in the CPL that everyone had to deal with, but were generally the most foreign to kiwis and I'm not venturing too far down that path just yet. It does set things up though and I'll keep half an eye on Santner's IPL work, while eagerly awaiting the kiwi summer to see how the spin landscape unfolds.

Ish Sodhi: 5 games, 2w @ 79.50avg/9.08rpo.

Nick Kelly: 4 games, scores of 5, 0 and 16.

Corey Anderson: 7 games, 53 runs @ 7.57avg/86.88sr.

You can ponder the bro Corey Anderson's CPL efforts yourselves.

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Peace and love.