Beneath the joy of Blackcaps vs India, England's T20 Blast roles on and a bunch of our favourite kiwi cricketers are already making a mark on the competition while a bunch more will link up with their teams after the World Test Championship Final. T20 tournaments don't warrant consistent check ins so don't expect these updates too frequently, with the T20 World Cup lurking on the horizon though; this is a funky pocket to explore.

The hottest non-Blackcaps batsmen to emerge from last summer was Finn Allen and he leads the kiwi run-scorers while not being overly dominant. Allen didn't play an Indian Premier League game and started his T20 Blast campaign with scores of 29 @ 223.07sr and 73* @ 143.13sr before knocks of 10, 0 and 25. All up Allen has 137 runs @ 34.25avg/144.21sr.

Allen's opening partner at Lancashire is Liam Livingstone and this feels like the equivalent of Allen batting alongside Wellington homie Devon Conway. Livingstone is 3rd in T20 Blast runs (as of Saturday morning) with 254 runs @ 63.50avg/141.89sr and in theory, Allen should benefit from having a solid opening partner to bounce off. Lancashire is 4th in the North Group with a 3-2 record and this will be interesting to keep tabs on as Allen seems to be in a beneficial team situation that should allow him to swing freely and express his slugging.

Glenn Phillips is rocking with Gloucestershire and this is fun. Phillips started with a couple 2nd 11 T20 games before popping up with a County Championship outing where he only scored 16 and 8, but did take 2w @ 3.66rpo in 21 overs. Phillips has played more 2nd 11 T20 games than T20 Blast games and his latest outing for Gloucs 2nd 11 saw Phillip smack 52 @ 173.33sr along with 2w @ 5.66rpo in 3ov.

We'd completely expect Phillips to enjoy 2nd 11 shenanigans and the deeper cut here is Phillips' bowling. Prior to his 18.5 Super Smash overs (5w @ 30.80avg/8.32rpo) last summer, Phillips had bowled 1ov in T20 cricket since his 2016/17 debut. Phillips was a bit busier bowling his offies in List-A cricket where he didn't bowl in his first three summers and stepped it up in 2017/18 and 2019/20. In First-Class cricket Phillips has taken a wicket in all five of his kiwi summers.

Phillips has less bowling in T20 cricket because he often plays as a wicket-keeper and this is exactly what he's doing for Gloucs in the Blast. When Phillips is playing 2nd 11 T20 cricket he is bowling, then in T20 Blast he's the wicket-keeper and this has no impact on Phillips the batsman as he's churned out scores of 44, 42, 38 and 7 in his 4inns.

Phillips is the 2nd best kiwi run-scorer with 131 runs @ 32.75avg/154.11sr and he is the only T20 Blast batsman who has hit 10+ sixes from less than 100 deliveries (11 sixes from 85 deliveries). Gloucestershire are 4th in the South Group with a 2-2 record and Phillips is their leading run-scorer.

Jimmy Neesham's lone IPL appearance? 2 overs @ 13rpo and a first ball quacker.

Neesham also enjoyed a 2nd 11 stint with Essex and his two games were headlined by a 53 @ 196.29sr. Neesham's next outing was his first T20 Blast game for Essex and he repeated his 2nd 11 performance with another 53 @ 212sr, followed by scores of 28, 21 and 19. Batting in the middle order, these are solid knocks from Neesham as he's scored 121 runs @ 161.33sr and they are in alignment with what Neesham did for the T20I Blackcaps last summer; 7inns, 139 runs @ 34.75avg/185.33sr.

Essex are 8th in South Group (1-3) and Neesham's chip-ins haven't helped Essex win. The key here is that Neesham has found some kinda groove that started with him executing his role for Aotearoa last summer and now he's extended it out to the Blast. In both his Blackcaps T20I summer and the T20 Blast, Neesham is averaging 30+ with a strike-rate over 160.

Ish Sodhi was a key figure for the Blackcaps T20I outfit last summer (38ov, 20w @ 15.45avg/8.13rpo) and started the Blast strongly for Worcestershrie with a wicket in each of his first two games while conceding less than 7rpo in both games. The last two games were against Lancashire and Yorkshire who are both good North Group teams and Sodhi bowled 4ov @ 7.50rpo vs Allen, then 4ov @ 13.25rpo vs Lockie Ferguson's Yorkshire. Worcs are 6th in North Group with a 2-1-1 record (1 draw).

Ferguson is another who didn't grab an IPL game and he's got a wicket in all four of his Blast games. Yorkshire are 2nd in North Group with a 3-1 record and this is the first time since the 2020 IPL that Ferguson has played four consecutive games in a series or tournament. That availability has no impact on his prowess though as Ferguson has taken a wicket in each of his last nine games - all of which are T20s and this stretches back to his last 2020 IPL outing where he didn't grab a wicket.

vs West Indies: 9ov, 7w @ 8avg/6.22rpo.

vs Bangladesh: 6ov, 3w @ 12.6avg/6.33rpo.

T20 Blast: 14.3ov, 6w @ 18avg/7.44rpo.

The best kiwi bowler in T20 Blast? Well that's Netherlands international Logan van Beek who has 10w in 18.5ov @ 16.80avg/8.93rpo for Derbyshire. This is part of an epic June for van Beek who played for Netherlands vs Ireland to start the month. Netherlands won the ODI series 2-1 and van Beek finished as the best Dutch bowler with 7w @ 17.83avg/4.09rpo in 26.2overs, while also scoring 55 runs in 3inns with 2 not-outs bumping his average up to 55.

Derbyshire aren't doing as well as Netherlands. 7th in the North Group with a 2-4 record, Derbyshire are a spot behind Sodhi's Worcestershire.

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