Plunket Shield cricket is back and the second stanza of four-day cricket in Aotearoa signals a slow shift into Autumn. Canterbury enjoyed a win over Otago down in Rangiora, Central Districts were too slick for Wellington in Napier and Northern Districts and Auckland played out a draw as rain filled up water tanks around Northland. There were various pockets of Plunket Shield funk and I'm going to zone in on the Test Blackcaps primarily, sprinkling in some other bits and bobs.

Let's start up north, where Neil Wagner made his return to cricket with 2w @ 3rpo in 13 overs opening the bowling for the Knights. Wagner didn't pick up any second innings wickets, then again spinners were the only bowlers to pick up wickets later in the game as Auckland's Louis Delport snared 7w @ 5.18rpo, Will Somerville picked up 1w @ 3.60rpo and Ish Sodhi finished things up for ND with 2w @ 1.86rpo.

Big up to Scott Kuggeleijn as well. Kuggeleijn took 7w @ 4.03rpo in the Knights first innings with the ball and currently has 14w @ 21.14avg/3.14rpo.

While Wagner has been out injured since the Boxing Day Test, BJ Watling has been a trooper for ND Knights. Watling managed 37 runs in the Knights only batting innings and in typical Watling fashion, he has four scores of 30+ in his last seven innings of cricket.

There is also a nugget here with Sodhi as he is the best spinner in the Plunket Shield right now and apart from last summer, Sodhi has steadily performed in the four-day format.

2017/18: 13th in wickets, 28w @ 13.92avg/2.42rpo.

2018/19: 1st, 36w @ 24.97avg/2.85rpo.

2019/20: 42nd, 3w @ 80avg/4.37rpo.

2020/21: 13th, 12w @ 25.16avg/3rpo.

Delport finished last summer with big wickets and Sodhi will get busy with Blackcaps vs Bangladesh coming up, so it'll be fun to see how kiwi spin business wraps up. Michael Rippon's in the mix, Delport could bump Will Somerville out of the Auckland line up and Ajaz Patel played his first Plunket Shield game of the summer last week.

Patel took 1w @ 2.68rpo in a hefty 25 overs as the CD Stags seamers did most of the mahi against Wellington; Blair Tickner was the pick of the seaming Stags with 3w and 4w.

Patel did score his first First Class half-century though, hitting 52 down the order for CD and this came alongside a knock of 50 from Ross Taylor. In a game featuring Will Young, Tom Blundell and Devon Conway, Taylor was the only top-tier lad to pass 50 and this is funky because it's Taylor who has been patchy with his run-scoring.

Taylor's last 10 games include five Super Smash games, four Ford Trophy games and this Plunket Shield outing. 10 games, 11 innings for Taylor and he has nice scores of 48*, 65, 68 and 50 scattered throughout this period. In Taylor's other 7inns, he has no scores over 10 runs and this kinda sums up where Taylor is at; he's either scoring 50-ish or below 10.

When Taylor does score runs, he whacks them. I don't know if this is good or a sign of a batsman trying to generate some juice in their batting, but it's a definite trend in this recent stretch.

Super Smash: 48* @ 177.78sr, 65 @ 180.56sr.

Ford Trophy: 68* @ 94.44sr.

Plunket Shield: 50 @ 111.11sr.

Will Young had scores of 10 and 3.

Tom Blundell had scores of 10 and 2.

Similar to Taylor, Devon Conway appears to be relatively out of form. Conway had five 50+ scores in a row, including three 90+ scores in a row across Super Smash and the T20I series vs Australia which has since moved to six consecutive scores below 50. Conway scored 27 and 19 in this Plunket Shield outing, although Conway is still leading all run-scorers in the Plunket Shield with 456 runs @ 50.66avg. Conway is the only Plunket Shield batsman with 400+ runs.

Leo Carter and Cameron Fletcher put up big runs for Canterbury, 169 @ 103.68sr for Carter and 157 @ 91.28sr for Fletcher. We're zoning in on these Blackcaps though and Canterbury are enjoying consistent production from their Blackcaps, especially Henry Nicholls and Tom Latham.

Latham had scores of 32 and 106, while Nicholls scored 72 and 33.

Check out this Nicholls/Latham combo for in Test cricket and for Canterbury...

vs West Indies: Nicholls - 7 | Latham 86.

vs West Indies: Nicholls - 174 | Latham 27.

vs Pakistan: Nicholls - 51, 11 | Latham - 4, 53.

vs Pakistan: Nicholls - 157 | Latham - 33.

FT vs Otago: Nicholls - 33 | Latham - 63.

FT vs Auckland: Nicholls - 113 | Latham - 30.

FT vs Auckland: Nicholls - 49 | Latham - 118*.

FT vs Northern Districts: Nicholls - 127* | Latham - 17*.

PS v Otago: Nicholls - 72, 33 | Latham - 32, 106.

That's their last nine games playing together and every game features a 50+ score from either Nicholls or Latham, sometimes both.

Matt Henry also took a few wickets and 2w @ 2.92rpo in the first dig, then 3w @ 2.80rpo in the second. Henry has only played two games of Plunket Shield cricket this summer with one in the first stanza and then his second game last week, taking 9w @ 19.77avg. Having wiggled his way back into the Test mixer, I'm intrigued as to how Henry finishes up this summer as he has dominated County cricket in England - where the Blackcaps play their next crop of Test games.

Henry's First Class record is alright huh: 72 games, 304w @ 25.30avg.

One last note is Daryl Mitchell, who I've got in this wider Test group that will form the touring party to England. Mitchell had scores of 56 and 37, serving as a reminder that Mitchell is 10th in Plunket Shield runs and 6th in wickets. My mark for all-rounder quality is the over 30/under 30 average check and while Mitchell is a smidge away from this in FC cricket (38.67avg batting, 31.23avg bowling), he is averaging 48 with the bat and 17.64 with the ball in the Plunket Shield.

Here's the Plunket Shield stat wrap for the Blackcaps Test blokes who played last week...

Tom Latham

6inns 346 runs @ 57.66avg, 1 x 100, 2 x 50.

Tom Blundell

9inns, 174 runs @ 19.33avg, 1 x 100.

Will Young

7inns, 212 runs @ 42.40avg, 1 x 100.

Ross Taylor

7inns, 179 runs @ 25.57avg, 1 x 50.

Henry Nicholls

3inns, 192 runs @ 64avg, 2 x 50.

BJ Watling

7inns, 239 runs @ 39.83avg, 2 x 50.

Matt Henry

79.1ov, 9w @ 19.77avg/2.24rpo.

Neil Wagner

64ov, 9w @ 25.44avg/3.57rpo.

Daryl Mitchell

Bat: 6inns, 288 runs @ 48avg, 1 x 100, 1 x 50.

Ball: 121.4ov, 17w @ 17.64avg/2.46rpo.

Peace and love.