Northern blokes are Super Smash champions after defending their home turf in the final against Canterbury. Katene Clarke and Mitchell Santner were the only lads to score 20+ runs as Northern jacked up 217/5 which is a hectic run chase in a final, leaving Canterbury stranded all out for 161 with an over to spare. This was the third game between these two teams this season and Northern took the bickies in all three games, while Northern's only loss came after their first game was rained out and they lost their second game vs Otago - Otago's only win.

When Northern enjoy the services of their Blackcaps army, they are funky to watch. Northern are used to their high Blackcaps numbers and always have a bunch of lads stepping in, then making way for the Blackcaps. Slide back to Northern's third game of the campaign and you'll find a Northern bowling attack consisting of Zak Gibson, Anurag Verma, Matthew Fisher, Fred Walker and Ish Sodhi rolling Auckland for 92.

With and without various Blackcaps, Northern went 9-1 throughout the Super Smash. Enjoy the Blackcaps vibe and all of that, while noting that Northern success tends to come with hearty lads holding things down without the Blackcaps. One of those blokes is Katene Clarke and he loves playing against Cantebrury...

We kept getting replays of Trent Boult smacking the winning six at Bay Oval against Cantebury, after an epic contest (shout out to Boult who took 2w in each of his last three Super Smash games but didn't play the final). That game at Bay Oval was all about Clarke though as he got pegged by a delivery on his hip which eventually forced him to leave the field - only after he hit 32* @ 266.66sr. Clarke then returned to watch Boult hit the winning runs and Clarke's knock on one leg was the only 20+ score in Northern's innings.

For the final, Clarke hit 71 runs @ 208.82sr. Clarke now has a T20 career strike-rate of 140 and his strike-rate of 153 this season is second only to Santner's 188sr.

This final was played at Seddon Park in Hamilton and that's lovely considering that three of Northern's best are all hearty Hamilton homies. Let's start with Santner who went bonkers with 92* @ 230sr after his knock of 59 @ 168.57sr vs Wellington. Regular readers know how fabulous Santner looks as a cricketer and when he's in the zone, nothing looks as smooth as Santner banging sixes, throwing down the stumps with a release from below his knee or delivering lefty swing after landing a perfect tweaker. Santner is incredibly skilled and perhaps his current form suggests some kind of growth?

Santner has a T20I batting strike-rate of 123.44 and T20 strike-rate of 131.58. His 188sr is well above both of those and Santner packaged his crisp hitting with 8w @ 6.66rpo/13.5sr. All of which feels like the best version of Santner and cue the ponderings of what Santner at the peak of his powers can offer a cricket team.

Santner wasn't Northern's best spinner though, that nod goes to Joe Walker who made his First Class debut before Santner and Ish Sodhi (early 2011). Walker finished with 16w @ 6.67rpo/11.6sr and consistently found turn off the pitch as a finger spinner, sparking the idea that Walker may be the biggest ripper in Aotearoa.

Walker is the eptiome of Northern's hearty vibe. From Hamilton, Walker has played second fiddle to Santner and Sodhi for a decade, yet Walker has stayed solid with Northern while learning from the international lads and improving. Walker gets plenty of game time when the Blackcaps are away and younger bro Fred is a lefty who offers further depth. All the Walker brothers have done is stay in the pocket, learn and command opportunites.

Northern shouldn't need three spinners right? Tim Southee, Trent Boult, Scott Kuggeleijn, Matthew Fisher, Zak Gibson and Brett Hampton are all handy seamers for Super Smash cricket, while Brett Randell has been tearing up Plunket Shield and didn't get a Super Smash game. Walker commanded selection alongside Santner and Sodhi, which is the holy grail for any great team man.

The third Hamilton homie is Anurag Verma and he finishes the campaign as Northern's best seamer with 14w @ 7.31rpo/12.7sr. Like Walker, Verma maintained his spot in the 1st 11 with the Blackcaps back in the mix but didn't manage a wicket in his last two outings including the final. Verma has quietly built a fantastic T20 record over 52 games with 62w @ 22.74avg/8.61rpo/15.8sr and Northern's quality is most evident in how lads like Verma and Walker raise their level of performance to the international players coming into the team.

The flipside of that is how players across various Blackcaps levels perform in the Northern environment...

Tim Seifert: 10inns, 239 runs @ 29.87avg/123sr.

Colin de Grandhomme: 10inns, 240 runs @ 30avg/142sr.

Mitchell Santner: 4inns, 158 runs @ 52.66avg/188sr | 18ov, 8w @ 6.66avg/13.5sr.

Ish Sodhi: 29ov, 10w @ 7rpo/17.4sr.

Tim Southee: 10.3ov, 6w @ 8.66avg/10.5sr.

Trent Boult: 14ov, 6w @ 8.35rpo/14sr.

Scott Kuggeleijn: 21.4ov, 11w @ 8.76rpo/11.8sr.

Northern's success is a credit to team culture. The likes of Verma and Walker are empowered to be their best with results reflecting that. Batters like Clarke, Jeet Raval, Joe Carter and Henry Cooper all understand their roles around some of the biggest hitters in Aotearoa. Ponder how 22-year-old Clarke played his best knock in the final, immediately snatching the contest away from Canterbury. That same role clarity and confidence to play freely was evident in all of Northern's role players.

The Northern Blackcaps either sustained their world-class T20 level of performance after cracking the T20 World Cup final, or in the cases of Santner, Seifert and de Grandhomme they found form within the Northern Super Smash environment. In every Northern pocket there are blokes playing their best cricket and sometimes we forget how rare that vibe is.

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Peace and love.