The upcoming cluster of Aotearoa Women's Super Smash games will see a double dose of Wellington Blaze, Northern Spirit and Canterbury Magicians which is rather convenient as these three teams are all well poised to challenge Auckland Hearts in the top spot. Auckland are 3-1 from their 5 games, sharing a no-result with Canterbury to give the Hearts 14 points, while Wellington and ND sit on 12 points with Canterbury lurking on 10 points.

Auckland: 5 games, 3-1, 14 points.

Wellington: 4 games, 3-1, 12 points.

Northern: 5 games, 3-2, 12 points.

Canterbury: 4 games, 2-1, 10 points.

Otago: 4 games, 2-2, 8 points.

Central: 6 games, 0-6, 0 points.

Auckland will play just one game in the next five games and that presents a lovely chance for the three chasing teams to make a move. There is a fair bit of funk in the team that has played the most games and also not won a game, with Central Hinds enduring a weird ol' Super Smash campaign. Weird, because Natalie Dodd is leading all run-scorers and in pondering greater White Ferns context, Dodd is the only fringe/non-White Ferns player who is commanding a consistent promotion.

Dodd has 182 runs in 6inns @ 36.40avg/96.80sr and has not registered a score over 50. Instead, Dodd has six 20+ scores in a row and this is the same recipe as last season's Super Smash for Dodd; 8th in runs, 273 runs @ 30.33avg/98.55sr and no 50+ scores. In the Hallyburton-Johnstone Shield, Dodd is currently 3rd in runs and she did manage to hit a century and half-century in her 6inns o 50-over cricket prior to the Super Smash.

While Dodd could score more runs or score her runs more swiftly, Dodd is carrying the Hinds through the Super Smash and covering over various points of niggle. Take Jess Watkin for example, who has been solid with the ball in taking 6w @ 22.50avg/6.98rpo/19.3sr to be ranked 4th for all bowlers and yet Watkin's brutal HBJ Shield batting as not been sighted in the Super Smash.

In 6inns of HBJ Shield cricket, Watkin hit 168 runs @ 158.49sr. Watkin hit 10 sixes and no other player had more than 3 sixes in the HBJ Shield.

In 6inns of Super Smash cricket, Watkin has 38 runs @ 66.66r. Watkin has not hit a Super Smash six and hit more HBJ Shield sixes than she has Super Smash fours.

Dodd's got six scores of 20+. Watkin has six scores sub-20.

Rosemary Mair was fantastic in the Women's Big Bash League: 8w @ 18.37avg/6.68rpo/16.5sr.

In the Super Smash, Mair has gone the other way: 1w @ 82avg/6.83rpo/72sr.

Hannah Rowe started her summer well in the HBJ Shield with 6w @ 17.83avg/3.98rpo for Central and that's flipped into a Super Smash record of 1w @ 130avg/7.72rp. It's all just a bit weird and as is the case across all of Aotearoa cricket, there's a fresh young wave sweeping across the domestic landscape which means that most of the job-doing players who aren't the star players are younger. That puts more juice behind the performances of a team's best players and for Central, other than Dodd's consistency, there isn't much juice in how Watkin, Mair and Rowe are performing.

Six games and the Hinds have batted first in four games, scoring 102 or less in those four games. When bowling first, the Hinds have taken a total of 8w and fell short in chasing Auckland's 158/2 and Northern's 161/6.

Wellington Blaze have been bolstered by the return of Leigh Kasperek: 5w in 2inns @ 7.20avg/6rpo/7.2sr. Stretching back to last year's Women's T20 World Cup, Kasperek is on a seven-game streak of 1+ wickets in T20 games and that's twice as funky considering that Kasperek's streak features three games in Australia, two games in India and two Super Smash games in Aotearoa.

Wellington now have three spinners operating at a high level and Kasperek's return may see skipper Maddy Green bowl less overs, but Green has offered value with her offies. Amelia Kerr has 5w @ 19.2sr and Green has 4w @ 15sr, to go with what Kasperek has served up. Chuck Jess Kerr's 5w @ 19.2sr and the Kerr sisters have near-identical bowling records in the Super Smash, while Wellington still have an arsenal of weapons to deploy ... maybe Sophie Devine soon too.

Canterbury are the most intriguing team to follow in this next cluster as they face Northern and Wellington. Frances Mackay has moved up to 2nd in wickets with 7w @ 6.71avg/3.91rpo/10.2sr and depending on Lea Tahuhu's involvement, those two lead what is a low key impressive supporting cast of bowlers. Gabby Sullivan has 4w @ 18sr, Kate Sims has 2w @ 21sr and Jacinta Savage has 2w @ 18sr which is all very efficient for their roles.

How Canterbury finds runs in this next cluster will be the key issue. Amy Satterthwaite has been decent with 117 runs @ 125.80sr, yet Canterbury don't have another batswoman in the group of 15 players with 80+ runs. Kate Ebrahim is the next best batswoman for Canterbury with 68 runs @ 100sr and given how the bowling unit has performed, Canterbury would benefit greatly from quick runs elsewhere in their batting line up; bat around Satterthwaite, ease her pressure.

Trying to suss out what Northern is up to seems tricky. Northern have a big win over Wellington and their other two wins were against Central, giving Northern a win over what many believe is the best team and wins over the worst team. Chuck in a loss vs Wellington and a win over Otago to have a messy wee lay out for the Spirit. Northern are also 3rd with a net-run-rate of -0.079 which is well behind Canterbury's 1.012NRR and Canterbury are a spot behind Northern on the ladder.

This sets up a interesting juncture for Northern as their campaign could go either way from this point and games against Canterbury, then Auckland amplify this notion. Felicity Leydon-Davis is the best Northern bowler with 5w @ 15.80avg/7.18rpo/13.2sr and while she is the only Northern bowler in the top-10, Northern are another team with strong contributions throughout their bowling unit.

21 bowlers have 3+ wickets in the Super Smash and despite not having another top-10 bowler, Northern have five bowlers with 3-4w. In the loss to Wellington, Lucy Boucher took 3w @ 7rpo and lefty-spinner Lauren Heaps is backing up a nice HBJ Shield with her Super Smash work. Heaps took 5w @ 19.40avg/4.04rpo in the HBJ Shield, now Heaps has 4w @ 25.25avg/7.04rpo in the Super Smash.

How Caitlin Gurrey performs will probably determine how Northern ride through this next cluster. Having smacked 416 runs @ 52avg/133.33sr to finish 3rd in Super Smash run-scoring last summer and been among the best batswomen across the formats for few summers, Gurrey moved into HBJ Shield where she is 7th in runs where she scored 170 runs but put up just one 50+ score and scored all her runs @ 65.13sr.

In the Super Smash, Gurrey has again struggled to jack up the big numbers of previous summers with one 50+ score in her 5inns. However, Gurrey is 4th in runs overall and has a nice strike-rate of 115.45 which when packaged with Northern's two other top-10 batswomen Kate Anderson (118.39sr) and Eimear Richardson (112.98sr) forms a low key hearty batting core.

Northern have shown that they can upset a team like Wellington and they also enjoy contributions from across their roster. They will need Leydon-Davis to lead with the ball and Gurrey to flex her batting talents to challenge Canterbury and Auckland, while also opening up opportunities for others to chime in. Auckland and Wellington seem to be the best teams, Canterbury have the talent to make a push and Northern are more of an unknown which sets up the rest of this week's games nicely.

Hit an ad to support the Niche Cache. Jam the Patreon whanau if that’s your buzz.

Peace and love.