With Aotearoa's best wahine cricketers, a couple overseas imports and a T20 World Cup looming on the horizon, the Women's Super Smash holds greater funk that the blokes competition. The White Ferns will be competing for this championship as well as T20WC spots and while emerging youngsters may command attention, most of the focus will be on the Ferns.

Auckland are last in HBJ Shield and they are the only team without a win. Auckland appear to have an endless supply of young cricketers who filter into their 1st 11 every summer, although very few of these players from Auckland sit in Aotearoa's elite youngster bracket. While this isn't a White Ferns note, Auckland's development is underwhelming and their success depends on the improvement of their young players as well as the domestic troopers. Many would assume this is easy mahi for Auckland, but it's not.

Fran Jonas is quietly emerging as one of the best spinners in the world and her ability to rip deliveries away from righties, then angling variations into righties could see her dominate Super Smash. Jonas has 13w in T20I cricket this year, the same amount of wickets as Amelia Kerr but with far better efficiecy; 13.46avg/4rpo vs 22.84avg/5.71rpo.

Lauren Down and Molly Penfold will be crucial for Auckland as players competing for T20WC opportunities. Down scored 235 runs @ 23.5avg/94sr last season and scored 58 runs @ 14.5avg/72.5sr in T20Is this year. A player of Down's class should be able to lead Auckland's run-scoring, Down could also dip out of White Ferns T20I matters if she struggles to churn out runs.

Penfold is a talented seamer who is probably second fastest in Aotearoa behind Lea Tahuhu. Unlike Tahuhu, Penfold is yet to dominate domestic cricket in Aotearoa. Penfold took 7w @ 30.28avg/6.83rpo last summer and she has a T20 career record of 38.28avg/7.05rpo. This is aligned with Penfold's limited White Ferns opportunities where she has taken 2w @ 62.5avg/4.46rpo in ODIs and played one T20I.

Northern's mahi revolves around Brooke Halliday, who is also in a niggly battle for T20I game time. Last season Halliday scored 94 runs @ 11.75avg/95.91sr and this flowed into 47 runs @ 11.75avg/90.38sr in T20I cricket this year. None of which is commanding selection but Halliday could be instrumental in taking an intriguing Northern outfit deep into the competition.

Central will have Hannah Rowe, Rosemary Mair and Claudia Green in their seam attack. Despite taking 12w @ 15avg/5.48rpo last season, Mair has fallen out of the White Ferns T20I mixer to play just one game this year. Mair's List-A average of 32.14 drops down to 21.72 in T20 cricket and a strong Super Smash campaign could see Mair rise up through the depth chart. Green is far better in LA bowling than T20s (23.56avg vs 37.12avg) and she is below Mair in the seam ranks, but she has been around White Ferns cricket this year.

Rowe's all-round ability will be a notable wrinkle to track throughout Super Smash. Rowe had a batting strike-rate of 101.48 last season and her two HBJ Shield games this summer resulted in 68 runs @ 97.14sr. There is a hole in the lower-order White Ferns slugging and while Rowe played eight T20I games this year, she only batted three times and bowled 10ov.

Rowe was not dismissed in her three innings (41 runs @ 97.61sr) and her she took 3w in her limited opportunities with the ball. Rowe's height/out-swing bowling package always looks good and this is quietly countered by taking 5w @ 48avg/6.31rpo last season, plus 2w @ 40avg/6.15rpo in HBJ Shield this summer.

Wellington are top-notch. Sophie Devine, the Kerr sisters and Maddy Green are monsters in this format, while Georgia Plimmer and Rebecca Burns are hunting further White Ferns opportunities. Plimmer and Burns provide a lovely strike-rate gauge as they both operated above 100sr (both 106sr) last season, setting the benchmark for other batting role-players competing for T20I selection.

Apart from Jess Kerr, those five players all scored 100+ runs with strike-rates over 100. J-Kerr hit 92 runs @ 150.81sr and that's the challenge of taking down Wellington as they have the most talent - talent hat loves to dominate Super Smash.

Don't overlook Leigh Kasperek either. Kasperek was brushed aside by White Ferns selectors ahead of the ODI World Cup earlier this year and hasn't played a T20I game this year. Kasperek took 20w @ 9.35avg/4.98rpo in the Super Smash last season and her 75w @ 14.13avg/6.29rpo only sits behind Devine (110w @ 17.45avg/6.34pro) for the best Aotearoa T20I bowlers ever.

Canterbury will have probably have Amy Satterthwaite in their batting line up. This could present an awkward vibe where Satterthwaite is clearly one of the best Super Smash batters, but she retired after not receiving a White Ferns contract. Lea Tahuhu destroyed Auckland's batting line up last weekend (10w @ 9.6avg/3.25rpo in HBJ Shield) just as she had done against Bangaldesh a few days prior.

Folks can learn a lot about wahine cricket from watching Tahuhu bowl. Tahuhu challenges batters in a unique way, many of whom can't deal with her pace or hostility. Add swing and seam on top of Tahuhu's mahi. Batters who can hit Tahuhu's short ball and/or attack her down the ground stand out, so keep learning.

Otago will be led by Suzie Bates, while Hayley Jensen and Eden Carson will also be key figures. Bates scored 504 runs @ 56avg/115sr last summer, while hovering around 26avg/101-104sr in WBBL and T20Is this year. There has been brewing noise about Bates the bowler and her 1 over in the Super Smash last season became 8ov in T20I cricket this year.

Jensen was Aotearoa's best T20I bowler this year with 19w @ 11.89avg/5.55rpo. Jensen was excellent in the Super Smash last summer with 10w @ 9.8avg/4.9rpo. There is room for growth in Jensen's T20 hitting and given that Jensen will probably bat down the order for White Ferns, watch out for her strike-rate and how influential her hitting is for Otago.

Carson took 11w @ 11.81avg/5.2rpo in T20Is this year and of the six White Ferns bowlers who took 10+ wickets, Carson had the second best average and bowling strike-rate. Carson parlayed her strong Super Smash last season (17w @ 15.82avg/5.84rpo) into T20I cricket and her development will be most evident in her variations during Super Smash.

The Carson scouting report always includes her fielding. Carson has already established herself as one of the best Super Smash fielders and along with the White Ferns kaumatua, Carson makes crucial stops inside the circle as well as flashing one of the strongest throwing arms in Aotearoa. Jonas is so good at spin bowling that her fielding errors can be absorbed, Carson adds value to her team as a fielder.

This will be a fascinating Super Smash for the wicket-keepers. Maddy Green feels like the best T20I option for White Ferns, although Jess McFadyen is likely to play that role for Wellington. Isabelle Gaze has enjoyed opportunities as well. McFadyen has a T20 batting average of 10 and Gaze averages 11.6, so hopefully there is a wicket-keeper in the Super Smash who commands this gig.

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