Northern Districts Knights made their first Plunket Shield appearance of the summer against Canterbury and juicy Tauranga conditions created a funky game in which both teams stacked up wickets. Canterbury dismissed ND for 187 first up, then ND returned the favour in rolling Canterbury for just 82 and ND couldn't quite pounce on a strong position as they then put up 123 which wasn't enough to defend as Canterbury reached 229/8 in victory.

Only one ND batsman passed 30 runs from either innings and given Joe Carter's consistent excellence, it should come as no surprise that the Knights skipper led his team with a first innings 74*. Cater couldn't back that up in the second innings, but there is a clear trend in Carter's mahi that seems to be creeping under the radar...

2018/19: 10th - 423 runs @ 42.30avg, 1 x 100, 3 x 50.

2019/20: 4th - 452 runs @ 45.0avg, 2 x 100, 1 x 50.

2020/21: 1st - 590 runs @ 53.63avg, 2 x 100, 2 x 50.

Right now, Carter has 77 runs from this first game (77avg) and the only blokes who can kick it with Carter's Plunket Shield consistency are Devon Conway, Greg Hay and Hamish Rutherford over the past four-five summers. In a team with Jeet Raval and Colin de Grandhomme, Carter is ND's best batsman and his production is worthy of closer inspection throughout this summer. Carter's overall record is impacted by averaging less than 25 in three seasons between 2014-17 and he's obviously found a groove to become a major underground factor.

ND had Scott Kuggeleijn and de Grandhomme in their bowling attack, although Brett Randell and Zak Gibson were the chief destroyers. Randell took 4w then 3w, while Gibson took 3w in each innings and this is a notable jump from last summer when they each played one game; Randell bowled 16ov and Gibson bowled 23ov.

Randell's effortless vibe caught the eye, strolling in to hit a good length and a wristy flick as he releases the ball ensures movement. The 26-year-old has already put up fantastic white ball numbers with 23.41avg in List-A cricket and 25.68avg in T20s, so expect his First-Class average to drop from 32.46 if he keeps this up.

24-year-old Gibson on the other hand averages 50.72 in FC, 40.42 in LA and 31.25 in T20s. Both Randell and Gibson have played 25 LA games, plus a bunch of T20 games and despite playing just one Plunket Shield game last summer they have each played 12+ FC games.

Everyone loves to buzz about the Blackcaps abundance with ND Knights and even now with the likes of Raval, de Grandhomme and Kuggeleijn there are still players who casual cricket fans know well to take most of the attention. The funkiest thing about ND though are their growing sprouts within this Blackcaps forest and this game encapsulated this nicely as the young leader Carter continued his run-scoring antics, while the new wave of seamers were the most impactful bowlers.

Canterbury won though.

Cameron Fletcher's 56* in the second innings was instrumental in sealing the win and it was the best Cantab knock of the game. Fletcher has been fantastic in the Plunket Shield's first stanza with 344 runs @ 86avg (1 x 100, 3 x 50) and like Carter, Fletcher's found a highly productive vein of form over the past few years that feels notable in building out Aotearoa's depth.

Canterbury's seam quartet dismissed ND for less than 200 twice. Here's their wickets in this game, then their season so far...

Matt Henry: 1w, 4w | 21w @ 17.76avg.

Will Williams: 3w, 3w | 17w @ 15.88avg.

Ed Nuttall: 2w, 0w | 12w @ 21.33avg.

Henry Shipley: 4w, 2w | 13w @ 11.23avg.

This is extremely similar to last summer's Canterbury dominance, however there are some tweaks in personnel and this fires up the alarm about player development. Those four lads above are the best bowling unit in Aotearoa right now and last summer Williams finished 1st in Plunket Shield wickets, while Fraser Sheat was 3rd. Sheat is currently 13th (7w @ 30.85avg) and along with Daryl Mitchell and Sean Davey, these three were all excellent last summer but have yet to play/contribute to this season's dominance.

Nuttall has improved from 21w @ 30.42avg last summer to averaging 21.33 this summer, while Shipley is the notable addition to the bowling attack. This gives Canterbury a stable of seamers who have all been varying degrees of fantastic across two campaigns and whether it's Kyle Jamieson's bowling development with Canterbury, Henry's tremendous baseline, Williams repeating his dominance or the likes of Shipley and Nuttall showing growth; Canterbury are the best at developing seam bowlers.

Join the Niche Cache Patreon whanau to support our kiwi sports content straight up, get a karma boost and find extra podcasts.

Every Monday and Friday we fire off an email with bonus content. Sign up here!

Peace and love.