Northern Districts and Central Districts shared a win each in their opening day of Super Smash action with the CD taking a win in the women's game and ND winning the men's encounter. Both winning teams had strong contributions from their White Ferns and Blackcaps, plus players who are hunting returns to the international arena.

CD were led by dominant mahi from Rosemary Mair and Hannah Rowe. Mair took 3w @ 4.5rpo and she continues to simmer as one of the best seamers in Aotearoa right now. Mair has 7w @ 15avg/4rpo in HBJ Shield this season and her last two games have produced 9w, while she also has a knock of 72 runs in HBJ Shield.

Rowe didn't take a wicket and conceded 7rpo before a crucial knock of 35* @ 102sr. Most importantly, Rowe's innings had a commanding vibe to it, whacking boundaries when CD needed them and flashing her all-round ability. Rowe has domestic batting averages of 19 in List-A and 17 in T20 which are better than a few White Ferns batters.

While ND need their experienced players to dominate, there is a funky crop of youngsters in this ND team though with Carol Agafili and Marama Downes showcasing their talent against CD.

Agafili hit 22 runs @ 183sr including the only six hit by ND and then she took 1w @ 6rpo. Agafili didn't play HBJ Shield prior to Super Smash but she has a LA batting strike-rate of 104 which was on display in her knock, while her wicket was her first in Super Smash. Downes took 1w @ 4.7rpo and she is snaring plenty of wickets this season, taking 7w @ 23avg/4.4rpo in HBJ Shield.

Along with Tash Wakelin, Holly Topp and Kayley Knight, ND have some of the best youngsters in women's cricket. These players are unlikely to win games for ND given the level of talent in the Super Smash but they can all chime in with runs or wickets.

The men's game had lots of experienced troopers who folks know well. The Super Smash Scout was zoned in on a few domestic players and this started with ND's sluggers. Katene Clarke hit 28 runs @ 164sr up top and Brett Hampton hit 27 runs @ 168sr, which are easy-mahi strike-rates for these two. Here are their List-A and T20 strike-rates...

• Katene Clarke: 93r | 144sr

• Brett Hampton: 107sr | 125sr

Clarke and Hampton have been sneaky figures in ND's Super Smash dominance so don't overlook their batting power. CD's Will Clark has been the sneakiest young talent in domestic cricket and he is one of the most notable blokes to track in Super Smash, especially given he was one of CD's best players against ND.

Clark only bowled 1 over with 1w @ 3rpo and then scored 29 runs @ 138sr, alongside CD's other youngster Curtis Heaphy who scored 31 runs @ 91sr. We have been keep close tabs on Clark's mahi this season in Ford Trophy and he is on a seven innings streak of 25+ scores stretching across all three formats. Clark is CD's best batter in Ford Trophy and one of their most efficient bowlers with a fabulous record in white-ball cricket...

• List-A: 64avg/99sr | 23.4avg/5.3rpo

• T20: 50avg/128sr | 3avg/3rpo

Clark (22yrs) and Heaphy (20yrs) are the only CD batters with two 50+ scores in Ford Trophy, making them the leading run-scorers for CD. No surprises then that these two lads scored the most runs in their first Super Smash game against Tim Southee, Neil Wagner, Scott Kuggeleijn and Mitchell Santner.

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