In a game impacted by rain, Northern Districts Knights defeated Wellington Firebirds to lock in a Ford Trophy final spot against Canterbury. In their two games vs Otago Volts prior to the finals, Wellington put up scores of 340/8 and 427/8 batting first, which was flipped around in Hamilton as ND batted first and whacked 351/8 from their 42 overs before Wellington fell short of their 284 runs in 26.1 overs target.

The Knights runs came via captain Joe Carter and Henry Cooper. Carter hit 75 @ 105.63sr and Cooper finished not-out of 146 @ 155.32sr, while the best of Wellington's bowlers were Logan van Beek and Ben Sears who took 3w each and conceded 8rpo. Tom Blundell was the only Firebirds batsman to to anything of note, hitting 80* @ 108.11sr as Wellington's innings finished with them of 145/7.

A couple Wellington notes to spark it up...

Blundell finishes the Ford Trophy with scores of 151 and 80*. Having only played five games, Blundell's campaign rolls out to 278 runs @ 69.50avg/99.28sr and that puts the Blackcaps Test opener in the same realm of Henry Nicholls and Tom Latham; both of whom stacked up runs in a few games.

Finn Allen hit 24 off 29 balls and he is currently leading the FT for sixes. Allen has hit 15 sixes, while ND's Cooper has hit 13 sixes and Brett Hampton will join Cooper in hunting that six-hitting perch in the final as the Knights slugger has 11 sixes. Canterbury's Leo Carter is the only other player within a sniff of Allen's 15 sixes, a wee bit back on 8 sixes.

I'm fascinated by what Allen does when the Plunket Shield swings back around. Having noted many times that Allen's work prior to the Super Smash wasn't overly flash, then Allen's good FT scores came in Super Smash mode, Allen's Plunket Shield work will give us a better insight into what Allen is as a domestic batsman.

Peter Younghusband finishes as Wellington's best bowler with 15w @ 28avg/5.45rpo and is highly likely to finish the competition as the best spinner.

Ben Sears was next-best for Wellington with 11w @ 24.09avg/6rpo.

As for the Knights, who are the headline act when all their Blackcaps are on deck and fall into the overlooked bucket when regular service resumes. Most kiwi cricket fans wouldn't know who Henry Cooper is, let alone the fact that he's one of Aotearoa's low key best young batsmen and he's entering the final with knocks of 51 and 146* to his name.

Cooper only played four games of Super Smash, as did Joe Carter who is on an even better streak of scores; 58, 71, 75. They are both classy operators though with Carter currently 2nd in Plunket Shield runs (345 runs @ 57.50avg) behind Devon Conway and Cooper backing up last summer when he was 2nd in Plunket Shield runs behind Conway (499 runs @ 49.90avg) with a solid start to the four-day format this summer.

This FT knock showcased Cooper's development as he cracked 11 fours and 7 sixes. His attacking game hasn't quite translated to Super Smash cricket, however Cooper does this nicely in the 50-over format and this is Cooper's second season in a row with a FT average over 50 and a strike-rate over 90.

Knights fans should be excited by the presence of Cooper, Carter and Katene Clarke as the batsmen to take them forward. These three were the Knights best FT batsmen last summer and apart from Jeet Raval, they are the Knights three best FT batsmen again this summer. Raval's only scored one century and one half-century in his 11inns, yet he is 2nd in FT runs (404 runs @ 36.72avg/76.08sr) and this is funky when looking back to last summer when Raval scored 273 runs @ 45.50avg/94.79sr for Auckland.

Raval's got two 50+ scores, everyone else in the top-10 for FT runs has at least three 50+ scores. Raval's and Auckland's Will O'Donnell are the only batsmen who have faced 500+ deliveries, which points to Raval's value to the Knights batting line up as he opens with the free-flowing Clarke before Carter, Cooper and BJ Watling are in the line up. If the Knights are rollin' as they were vs Wellington, Watling drops down the order and up step the hitters in Brett Hampton and Colin de Grandhomme.

A batting line up with Raval at the top and Watling in the middle, is nothing but solid at this level. Raval digs in and allows Clarke to go about his work, then if Raval gets his way through the first 10-15 overs the likes of Carter and Cooper can bat around him. Similar story with spinner Joe Walker in the bowling unit as he's got a solid 11w @ 35.81avg and Walker has also bowled in every game, plus no other bowler has hit 90 overs with Walker.

Around that, the Knights have three seamers with 14w and one of them doesn't appear likely to lace up for the final as Brett Randell recently lost his spot to Matthew Fisher. Randell's got 15w @ 23.66avg in 7inns bowled and played five consecutive games taking 2+ wickets prior to the Super Smash, which then flipped into 1w in his last three games (one SS game, two FT games). Fisher and Kuggeleijn have added some juice to this Knights attack...

Fisher: 5inns, 11w @ 19.18avg/4.79rpo.

Kuggeleijn: 5inns, 9w @ 23.22avg/4.71rpo.

What about Watling and de Grandhomme?

Watling's been typically Watling with 168 runs @ 42avg/74.33sr and that average is bolstered by 2 not-outs in his 6inns. His skillset is useful though as he can salvage a 50-over innings and drag his team to a competitive target, or he can make way for the hitters like Hampton and de Grandhomme. De Grandhomme has only bowled in one of the last five games and has chipped in with scores of 43, 19, 12, 29 and 0 down the order; with a strike-rate of 118.39 these types of knocks are handy.

In the final, Canterbury have the big donnie advantage as Henry Nicholls, Tom Latham and Matt Henry feel better than the Knights' Watling and de Grandhomme. Both teams have quality seamers around a tidy seamer, which for Canterbury is Todd Astle and the battle of which seam attack (mostly righty mediums) can be more effective will be fun for cricket nerds. Canterbury have their own undercover star in Ken McClure who is enjoying a dominance across formats.

The funk sits with Clarke, Carter and Cooper for the Knights. These three will face a Canterbury attack that features three of the top-five wicket-takers, they've got form behind them and given the Cantabs batting quality, they'll have to showcase their low key class.

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Peace and love.