Home advantage counted for nothing in Plunket Shield round two as Central Districts cruised to victory over Auckland and Canterbury deployed the heavy roller to steamroll Wellington. Defending champions Auckland have now lost their first two games, both of which were played in Auckland and they are yet to register a batting innings with 200+ runs.

Auckland's second loss started with a win - winning the toss to bat first. Central dismissed Auckland for 75 in the first innings thanks to Doug Bracewell's 5w @ 2.11rpo and Brett Randell's 4w @ 1.75rpo. Will Young's 75 runs and a hefty 169 from Tom Bruce put Central ahead as they reached 361. Auckland could only manage 187 in response as Blair Tickner took his first wickets of the campaign (4w @ 2.17rpo).

No Auckland batter has scored 100+ runs, nor is any Auckland batter averaging over 25 after two games on home turf. Auckland's seam bowling unit lacks the oomph of other teams and they have a splash of funk with Adithya Ashok's 5w @ 2.61rpo on debut. Ashok should stay in Auckland's 1st 11, regardless of conditions as his leggies and Will Somerville's offies (7w @ 24.71avg) are simmering as their most potent bowling weapons.

Sean Solia's 7w @ 17avg leads Auckland bowlers, but the all-rounder doesn't have much support. Simon Keene took 25w @ 14.28avg last season and he has 2w @ 75.5avg to start this season, while last season's leading bowler Brett Randell is doing the opposite. Randell took 31w @ 14.83avg for Northern last season, now he's got 7w @ 15.14avg with Central this season.

Bruce's 169 takes him to 245 runs @ 81.66avg. Remember that Bruce hit 858 runs @ 143avg last season and his last five PS games feature scores of 90*, 208*, 204*, 2, 74 and 169. Bruce scored a century in each of his first three FC seasons, averaging 40+ in three of his first four seasons. Then came a dip in the next three seasons with no centuries and all three seasons averaging below 40, before exploding with big donnie runs last season.

Ajaz Patel didn't take a wicket for Central and he wasn't required in their first bowling innings, then bowling 14ov @ 3.29rpo in their second effort. This continues to be an intriguing wrinkle as Patel took 8w @ 43.75avg last season and Aotearoa's numero tahi Test spinner is now in back to back Plunket Shield seasons averaging over 4.0

Blackcaps Test openers Will Young and Tom Latham are in a groove. Young has two 50+ scores in the first two games and this stretches out to three 50+ scores in his last four games (two County Championship games). Latham has two hundreds from his first two games after 143* for Canterbury in their second innings vs Wellington; Latham scored two centuries in two PS games last season for 262 runs @ 87.33avg, now averaging 168 this season.

Latham only scored 26 in Canterbury's first batting stint as Wellington restricted the Cantabs to just 123, led by Michael Snedden's 4w @ 1.6rpo. Wellington responded with 80 runs before Latham's century and 54 from Henry Nicholls took Canterbury to 334. Canterbury skittled Wellington for 87 to seal victory.

Canterbury's seam attack is fantastic, as usual. Matt Henry took 3w and 4w, taking him to 14w @ 11.14avg this season and Henry's in the same PS groove as Latham. Henry took 21w @ 17.76avg last season and with a First-Class average of 24, Henry is ruthless in favourable early-season conditions.

Sean Davey only played two PS games last season and has already played the first two games this season, taking 5w and 2w against Wellington. Folks should also be tapped in with Will O'Rourke as the tall seamer is gathering wickets this season, taking 2w in each innings against Wellington and now averaging 24.66 in his career. Henry, Davey and O'Rourke are all averaging below 25, as is Fraser Sheat who didn't play this game.

Wellington's batting woes are somewhat alarming. Rachin Ravindra and Tom Blundell led the batting effort against Norther but didn’t score runs against Canterbury and Wellington crumbled to scores below 90, on their home deck. Ravindra (46.25avg) and Blundell (49avg) are the only Wellington batters averaging over 30.

Talented youngsters like Luke Georgeson (14avg), Troy Johnson (6.5avg) and Tim Robinson (3.25avg) have started slowly this season. Nick Kelly scored 675 runs @ 51.92avg last season for Otago and his moved to Wellington has produced 53 runs @ 13.25avg this season.

At least Wellington's seamers are playing their role. Snedden (10w @ 16avg), Ollie Newton (5w @ 16.8avg) and Ian McPeake (11w @ 23.81avg) have enjoyed Basin Reserve conditions. Ben Sears played his first game of the summer and took wickets in both innings (3w) as he tries to back up his impressive mahi from last season (18w @ 23.27avg).

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