Canterbury women are the only team competing with Wellington at the top of the Super Smash ladder and also lead HBJ Shield, with players dominating both competitions. Things have fallen in Canterbury's favour for their HBJ Shield campaign as they have played the most games with a 3-1 record, while Wellington are 2-0 and every team has no-results due to rain.

Canterbury are the only team with at least three wins in HBJ Shield and sit second on the Super Smash ladder with a 5-1 record. Wellington are leading Super Smash with an undefeated 6-0 record, so why deep dive into Canterbury's mahi? Wellington could lose half their 1st 11 to the upcoming White Ferns T20I squad and while this sets up intrigue as to how Wellington's depth performs during Super Smash finals, Lea Tahuhu is likely to be Canterbury's only mid-season departure.

Tahuhu has been typically fantastic in domestic cricket this season, although she is not Canterbury's best SS bowler. Tahuhu has the most wickets of all bowlers in HBJ Shield with 12 @ 11.5avg/3.53rpo and has 6w @ 19.33avg/4.83rpo. Last year Tahuhu took 12w @ 16.66avg/5.88rpo in T20I cricket and she will be a key figure at the T20 World Cup.

Canterbury blokes have a never-ending list of seamers ready to do a job in domestic cricket. In the last few weeks Zak Foulkes has joined Will O'Rourke and Fraser Sheat in SS, after Henry Shipley earned a Blackcaps promotion. Tahuhu is the best wahine seamer in Aotearoa and Canterbury have Gabby Sullivan tied with Missy Banks as the leading SS wicket-takers, while Sullivan is second to Tahuhu in HBJ Shield wickets.

Sullivan is the only bowler who is top-five for HBJ Shield and SS wickets. Sullivan has 10w @ 14avg/6rpo in Super Smash and 11w @ 10.36avg/3.12rpo in HBJ Shield. For context, White Ferns seamers Hayley Jensen and Molly Penfold have 3w @ 42/43avg in SS. Sullivan has a List-A career record of 23.15avg/4rpo and T20 record of 17.39avg/6.37rpo, both of which are better than many other bowlers who have played for Aotearoa.

24-year-old Sullivan is joined by 21-year-old Banks at the top of the SS bowling charts. Banks has 10w @ 15.3avg/6.9rpo in SS and 4w @ 24.25avg/2.85rpo in HBJ Shield. Banks has the best economy rate of all bowlers in HBJ Shield (Sullivan is second) and is the only bowler conceding less than 3rpo. Banks has a LA record of 57.95avg/4.59rpo which will continue dipping with her current form, along with a fabulous T20 record of 18avg/7.1rpo.

Sullivan and Banks are two of the best SS bowlers while White Ferns are playing. Canterbury also have three spinners who will keep playing throughout the domestic summer as Sarah Asmussen is joined by the all-round excellence of Amy Satterthwaite and Kate Anderson.

Asmussen has 4w @ 22.75avg/5rpo in HBJ Shield and 8w @ 15.37avg/6.15rpo in SS. For context, Asmussen's leggies compare nicely to Amelia Kerr's 5w @ 27.2vg/5.91rpo in SS although Asmussen isn't Canterbury's best SS spinner. Satterthwaite is Canterbury's best spinner and she is the best player in all domestic cricket this summer.

Satterthwaite is ranked fourth for SS bowlers and sits behind Leigh Kasperek as the best spinner. Satterthwaite has 9w @ 12.77avg/5rpo and she has enjoyed a hefty SS workload as her 23ov bowled only sit behind Sullivan's 23.1ov and Tahuhu's 24ov. Satterthwaite has only played three HBJ Shield games and bowled in two of them with 8.3ov of action, taking 2w @ 20avg/4.7rpo.

Satterthwaite has scores of 49* and 33 in HBJ Shield. The first score sparked a trio of not-out innings with scores of 73* and 50* coming in her next two innings - her first SS knocks of the season. Satterthwaite is now second for SS runs with 224 runs @ 112avg/118.51sr and that average is bonkers because Satterthwaite is the only batter who has scored 150+ runs three not-out innings.

As Satterthwaite is the only player chillin' in the top-five for runs and wickets, her presence in the Canterbury line up will be crucial over the next few weeks. Canterbury wahine were boosted by the arrival of Anderson from Northern for this season and while Anderson is second to Satterthwaite for Canterbury SS runs, she leads Canterbury for HBJ Shield runs. Anderson is also the only batter in top-five for HBJ Shield and SS runs, as well as being the only Canterbury batter with a 50+ score in both competitions.

Anderson has 194 runs @ 38.8avg/103.74sr in SS and 110 runs @ 27.5avg/71sr in HBJ Shield. With Satterthwaite and Asmussen humming as SS bowlers, Anderson has only bowled 4ov without a wicket in SS. In HBJ Shield Anderson has 5w @ 14.8avg/3.36rpo, more wickets and a better record than the spinning homie Asmussen.

Other pockets of Canterbury funk include...

22-year-old seamer Jess Simmons has 6w @ 23.5avg/4.27rpo in HBJ Shield.

Banks had a knock of 37* in last week's HBJ Shield game, along with 47 runs from 20-year-old Jodie Dean. Dean scored 32 runs in her other HBJ Shield knock this season.

18-year-old Izzy Sharp whacked 41 runs @ 132.25sr in an HBJ Shield game a few weeks ago which gives her an overall strike-rate of 122.85 - slightly higher than Tahuhu's 122.72sr. Sharp won't be playing SS as she is with the Under 19 T20 World Cup team, a team that features three White Ferns and yet Sharp was captain for their first game.

Laura Hughes, Nat Cox and Fran Wilson add hearty experience to Canterbury's batting line up. These three are all averaging below 15 with strike-rates below 100 in SS which has been absorbed by the excellence of Satterthwaite and Anderson. Cox and Hughes are both averaging 20+ in HBJ Shield though, with Hughes second to Anderson for Canterbury run-scoring.

Cox and Hughes have simple roles in SS as they can attack bowlers knowing that Satterthwaite is there to anchor an innings. Former England international Fran Wilson is playing SS and while she is yet to jack up a decent score, Wilson is likely to settle in and find form at some point.

When two of the best wahine cricketers from Aotearoa are dominating, its easy to highlight their importance in Canterbury's success. This summer Canterbury have the best young bowlers in domestic cricket snaring wickets in both formats, while also adding one of the best low key cricketing talents in Anderson. Canterbury have elite emerging talent scattered throughout their squad and despite all this talent, White Ferns selection won't have much of an impact on their season.

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