After missing out on the early-summer Plunket Shield antics, Auckland have now played two catch up games and won both. No other team is undefeated in the PS and Canterbury is the only other team to win two or more games. The funkiest joker in the Auckland team right now is Glenn Phillips and this isn't from pure domination as other lads have scored more runs than Phillips in PS, Ford Trophy and Super Smash. No other cricketer in Aotearoa oozes cricketing funk like Phillips and his domestic mahi has only amplified this.

Phillips had scores of 0 and 41 in Auckland's first PS game against Northern. Auckland then made a trip down south to Dunedin last weekend where Papatuanuku and Ranginui enjoyed another strong outing, forcing Auckland and Otago to combine with quick declarations and generate a contest. Auckland did manage to put up 325/9 in their first innings with Phillips smacking 61 runs @ 127sr, while Mark Chapman scored 97 and Will Somerville had a cheeky smack himself with 60* (125sr). In Auckland's second innings, Phillips smacked 53* @ 220.83sr as Auckland declared on 84/2.

I'm zoning in on Phillips here so big ups to everyone who dabbled in runs and wickets. This was the first hefty explosion from Phillips this summer after a solid SS saw him hit two 50+ scores in six games, while Phillips has only managed 115 runs from five FT games. There is a pocket of FT games coming up for every team and this presents Phillips with an opportunity to stack his mahi on top of his PS explosion.

Plunket Shield: 4inns, 155 runs @ 51.66ag/129.16sr, 2 x 50.

Ford Trophy: 5inns, 115 runs @ 23avg/78.76sr.

Super Smash: 6inns, 158 runs @ 31.60avg/146.29sr, 2 x 50.

Divine timing is at play here considering that the first Aotearoa vs South Africa Test starts today and one of my key notes is the battle between Aotearoa's batting depth and South Africa's slick seam attack. Will Young, Daryl Mitchell and Devon Conway have all benefited from Luteru Taylor's retirement and Kane Williamson's injury by pouncing on their opportunities just as Phillips did when he went from chillin' at a glorious Aotearoa beach to scoring 51 runs on Test debut vs Australia at the SCG.

That was the summer when the wave of Aotearoa's depth started to be surfed. Mitchell scored 73 on Test debut vs England a few weeks before the tour of Australia, then Young made his debut later in 2020 and Conway debuted mid-way through 2021. Now Phillips has slipped out of contention for squad selection and this is understandable given that the Young/Conway duo are top-order specialists and Mitchell's an all-rounder.

Phillips is all funk and x-factor, while showing class in red ball cricket. Phillips' knock on debut came with a strike-rate of 45.21 against Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins and Nathan Lyon. When needed, Phillips can definitely crack the red ball all around PS boundaries but his strike-rates reflect the mahi required to score runs in every format; 63.91sr in FC, 82.81sr, in LA and 140.56 in T20.

None of the above is the funkiest thing about Phillips though and those who haven't been tapped into domestic cricket need to re-frame their perception about Phillips as a cricketer. Auckland comrade Chapman was highlighted by the ever-knowing Gavin Larsen as a batter with good spin bowling stuff, someone who (have a search yourself) was generating plenty of hype around 2018-19.

Chapman's still scoring runs by the way and is a hearty factor in Blackcaps depth. This is merely an intriguing comparison as Chapman was referred to as a 'spin bowling all-rounder' and received special mentions for being unluggy uce to miss out on squad selection, plus "We'd like to see Mark continue to work on his bowling, which could open up other opportunities for him".

Rachin Ravindra may have low key leap-frogged Chapman as he hopped over Mitchell Santner. The real funk is deep in Auckland's mahi with Phillips now operating as the second spinner alongside Somerville, bowling ahead of Chapman and leaving no room for specialist spinners Louis Delport and Adithya Ashok.

Plunket Shield

Glenn Phillips: 12.3ov, 3w @ 8avg/1.92rpo.

Mark Chapman: -

Ford Trophy

Glenn Phillips: 13ov, 1w @ 70av/5.38rpo.

Mark Chapman: 6ov, 0w.

Super Smash

Glenn Phillips: 5ov, 3w @ 11.33avg/6.80rpo.

Mark Chapman: 8.5ov, 1w @ 84avg/9.50rpo.

That's 30.3 overs and 7 wickets for Phillips, 14.5ov and 1w for Chapman. The fact that Phillips still bowled FT and SS overs as Auckland developed Ashok (really good recent FT and SS mahi) alongside the veteran Somerville, while still giving four games to Delport helps set the scene for Phillips' white ball bowling. Auckland don't really need Phillips' overs in FT and SS, but they want them.

Seeds of Phillips' brewing bowling were planted in previous domestic summers as he stopped playing as a wicket-keeper and swiftly flexed as the most dynamic fielder in Aotearoa. Phillips was part of the Aotearoa OE crew that dominated England last winter, although he didn't score many County Championship runs for Gloucestershire (6inns, 109 runs @ 18.16avg). Phillips did bowl 40 overs in three games with 4w @ 39.75avg/3.97rpo as well as a sprinkle of 4 overs, 2w @ 9rpo in the T20 Blast.

Regular readers know how I feel about Aotearoa's relationship with England cricket, so I thoroughly enjoyed seeing Phillips go from wicket-keeper to taking 6 wickets in 44 overs during his stint in England. Never mind Phillips finishing 2nd for T20 Blast runs with 500 runs @ 55.55avg/163.39sr.

No cricketer in Aotearoa offers the juice of Phillips. We first saw Phillips shine with his frisky batting and as soon as he started to churn out reps as a fielder, his freakish athleticism was on display. Now Phillips has simply applied that juice to his bowling and when you take a moment to imagine Phillips' hitting power, then his speed and dynamic fielding, you're left to imagine how Phillips applies that athleticism to his spin bowling.

Phillips has played six seasons of FC cricket in Aotearoa, averaging over 30 in all of them. Boil that down further and Phillips has averaged 36.84, 42.15 and 51.66 in his last three seasons. All of which amounts to a FC average of 38.75 across his career and this continues to be a key marker of mine for Phillips as it's very easy to judge Phillips as all oomph, no class. That's how it looks sometimes with his funky strokes, yet Phillips is simply one of Aotearoa's best cricketers.

Forecasting where Phillips fits into Blackcaps teams is on the back-burner. Right now Phillips is cooking on high heat and I'm fascinated about what Phillips offers as a cricketer. No one is as athletic as Phillips in Aotearoa cricket and Phillips is now combining funk with class, runs with a few wickets and all sorts of 'wtf was that? moments. Enjoy the G-Philly antics folks.

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Peace and love.