Ford Trophy cricket takes a break to open the Super Smash window and there are a bunch of younger lads who impressed in the first stanza of Ford Trophy, who folks should watch out for in the T20 competition. This starts with a group of batters who had two 50+ scores in FT, including Wellington's Troy Johnson who cracked 97* @ 112sr in a run-fest against Auckland at Eden Park's outer oval on Wednesday.

This knock took Johnson to third in FT runs, one of three batters to score 200+ runs. Central Districts' Will Clark is right behind Johnson for runs and Clark's all-round talents make him a notable youngster to track in Super Smash (more on that below). Mitch Hay was in the Plunket Shield All Stars and he's among the best FT batters as Canterbury's wicket-keeper, while Thorn Parkes had two scores over 50 in his first three innings of FT with Otago. Rounding out the best young batters in FT is CD's Curtis Heaphy who also had two 50+ knocks in his first three FT innings; Heaphy and Parkes are the only batters with two 50+ scores in three innings of FT.

• Troy Johnson: 210 runs @ 70avg/78sr (26yrs)

• Will Clark: 193 runs @ 64avg/94sr (22yrs)

• Mitch Hay: 185 runs @ 46avg/82sr (23yrs)

• Thorn Parkes: 155 runs @ 51avg/77sr (23yrs)

• Curtis Heaphy: 126 runs @ 42avg/56sr (20yrs)

Johnson, Clark and Hay are highly likely to be 1st 11 players in Super Smash. Johnson has a T20 strike-rate of 106, while Clark and Hay are both over 120sr. Parkes has played four Super Smash game with 5.6avg/62sr so he may not start the campaign as a 1st 11 batter and Heaphy is yet to play Super Smash. Perhaps the absence of Josh Clarkson could open up a spot for Heaphy and Clarkson's Blackcaps call up will provide Clark an opportunity to showcase his talent.

Clark also has 5w @ 20avg/5.1rpo with the ball in FT. This gives Clark a List-A bowling average of 23.4 and a batting average of 64. Clark's 124sr in T20 batting is bolstered by 99sr in LA cricket. Yet to bowl in Super Smash, Clark could operate as CD's fifth or sixth bowler and his current form has Clark as the funkiest youngster entering Super Smash mode.

Kristian Clarke and Ray Toole join Adam Milne as the only lads with 9w in FT. Clarke is brewing as one of the best seamers that folks don't know about and his bowling stats speak for themselves...

• First-Class: 42w @ 26.95avg/3.4rpo

• List-A: 25w @ 19.36avg/5rpo

• T20: 7w @ 21.28avg/8.7rpo

Clarke is 22-years-old and he's on a streak of six consecutive innings taking at least a wicket, five of which have been 2+ wickets. Clarke has only batted once in Super Smash and he cracked 8 runs @ 266sr, plus he has two 50+ scores in FC batting. While not quite in the Will Clark all-round zone, Clarke will flash his batting talent at some stage in Super Smash.

Toole is 26-years-old and he is also building a solid bowling record...

• First-Class: 101w @ 26.26avg/2.9rpo

• List-A: 25w @ 33.64avg/5.1rpo

• T20: 11w @ 27.54avg/10.8rpo

Toole has only played eight T20 games and he will be eager to settle in CD's 1st 11, while also aiming to dip below 10rpo. Toole has 2+ wickets in each of his last three games and like Clarke he was one of the best Plunket Shield first stanza seamers, adding an enticing lefty-seam skillset to domestic cricket.

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