Finn Allen's second century in four Ford Trophy games gave Auckland a win over Northern Districts and kept them on top of the Ford Trophy ladder. Auckland have a 3-1 record and they are a point ahead of ND, while Central Districts' win over Otago puts them a point behind ND. Wellington were too good for Canterbury which bumped Canterbury to the bottom of the ladder, while Otago and Wellington are in the bottom half with a win each.

Batting first, Auckland put up 307/5 with Allen hitting 120 runs @ 123sr. George Worker chimed in with 63 runs @ 72sr and Cam Fletcher continues his nifty run of lower-order hitting with 52* @ 126sr. Joe Walker (2w @ 6.2rpo) was the best bowler for ND and the hosts in Whangarei could only manage 253 in reply, with Brett Hampton offering a valiant 67 runs @ 124sr.

Every Auckland bowler took a wicket, but Danru Ferns is the pick of the Auckland bowlers so far with 8w @ 26avg/5.9rpo. Ferns is second for wickets while Allen leads all batters as the only bloke with 200+ runs and he's cruising along with 368 runs. Fletcher has scores of 68* and 52* in his last two games, scoring with a strike-rate of 96 across his three innings.

Kristian Clarke only took 1w @ 5.3rpo but he did snare the wicket of Allen and is ND's best bowler, ranked fourth for wickets. Clarke has 7w @ 19avg/4.5rpo and this maintains his epic List-A bowling average of 20.86. Walker now has 5w @ 25avg/4.8rpo and this is more efficient than Adithya Ashok's 5w @ 38avg/4.8rpo, but not quite as nifty as Cole McConchie's 5w @ 20avg/4.6rpo as the best spinner in FT.

McConchie didn't take a wicket against Wellington, with Will O'Rourke leading Canterbury's bowling effort (3w @ 3.4rpo). Michael Rae also took 2w @ 5.9rpo as Wellington worked their way to 247/8 with Nick Greenwood the only Wellington batter to score over 30 runs, hitting 64 runs @ 72sr.

Canterbury were dismissed for 192 runs. Chad Bowes was the only Cantab to put up a decent score with 45 runs as Nathan Smith (3w @ 3.5rpo) and Adam Milne (3w @ 2.5rpo) ripped through Canterbury's batting line up. Leggy Peter Younghusband also took 2w including the wicket of Bowes and fellow spinner Michael Rippon.

Milne leads all FT bowlers with 9w @ 9avg/3.3rpo and despite only bowling in two games, Smith has settled as Wellington's second best bowler with 4w @ 14avg/4.2rpo. Keep in mind that Smith is second for Plunket Shield wickets with 21w @ 15avg/2.9rpo and he may be whipping up a 'best domestic bowler' brew with this mahi across both formats. Kristian Clarke is the other lad in this mix (17w @ 17avg/3.8rpo in PS).

Greenwood rolled through a strong start to PS with 37.4avg and three scores over 50, now he's got his first FT score over 50. How Greenwood performs throughout FT will be interesting as he has a LA average of 42.6 and this is his best domestic season so far.

CD put up 236/9 against Otago led by Brad Schmulian's 51 runs @ 66sr and Will Clark's 57* @ 100sr. Travis Muller (3w @ 2.5rpo) and Ben Lockrose (3w @ 3.5rpo) were Otago's best bowlers, with Luke Georgeson adding 2w @ 3.5rpo. Otago were then dispatched for 154 as Josh Clarkson snared 3w @ 4.6rpo, along with Blair Tickner and Ray Toole taking 2w @ 2.5rpo each.

CD's young all-rounder Clark is still commanding the spotlight. Clark took 1w @ 4.3rpo with the ball and he now has 3w @ 19avg/4.8rpo while also leading CD for runs with 159 runs @ 79avg/101sr. This FT groove gives Clark a LA batting record of 74avg/105sr and a solid bowling record of 24avg/5.2rpo. Clark didn't play PS for CD but he's come into their FT 1st 11 with two 50+ scores and a knock of 43 runs @ 95sr in his other outing. Clark also has wickets in two of the three games and the 22-year-old is quietly gathering momentum as one of the best emerging all-rounders in Aotearoa.

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