Super Smash finals are looming with a few more games to play and finals spots up for grabs, so now is a lovely time to check in with the best Blackcaps and White Ferns. There is no better place to start than the Queen of the Basin Amelia Kerr who is first for runs and wickets, with her Wellington Blaze cruising towards finals cricket at the top of the ladder.

Over the last 10 days and four games, Kerr has scores of 60*, 77*, 26 and 73* all with fantastic strike-rates. That's good enough to make Kerr the best batter in Super Smash, although she has also taken 1 wicket, 5w, 5w and 2w in those games. Kerr is part of a strong crop of White Ferns in the batting department with Suzie Bates (Otago) and Maddy Green (Auckland) leading their teams strongly...

Amelia Kerr: 354 runs @ 70avg/127sr
Suzie Bates: 346 runs @ 69avg/111sr
Maddy Green: 279 runs @ 55avg/112sr
Hollie Armitage: 215 runs @ 30avg/113sr
Kate Anderson: 177 runs @ 25avg/111sr
Frances Mackay: 172 runs @ 28avg/92sr
Georgia Plimmer: 169 runs @ 56avg/102sr
Chamari Athapaththu: 158 runs @ 31avg/141sr
Hannah Rowe: 146 runs @ 29avg/94sr

Armitage (CD) and Athapaththu (ND) are imports who are both leading their respecitve teams for runs. Mackay's mahi is still worthy of White Ferns selection but that seems unrealistic at this stage, which leaves a cluster of White Ferns at the top of the run-scoring charts.

Anderson is slightly ahead of Mackay for Canterbury runs, building on her debut for White Ferns nicely. Plimmer is operating well alongside Kerr for Wellington and she still leads the competition for the most not-outs with five in her eight innings. Rowe offers genuine all-round mahi and her contributions in the last phase of Super Smash will be crucial for Central Districts.

There are less White Ferns in the best bowler list and this is instead stacked with youngsters on the rise (Skye Bowden, Sarah Asmussen, Rosemary Mair, Emma Black, Xara Jetly, PJ Watkins, Gabby Sullivan, Marama Downes, Molly Loe). Kerr is the only bowler with 14+ wickets so far and she is joined by Blaze homie Leigh Kasperek as the only bowlers with 11+ wickets in Super Smash. Here are the best bowling White Ferns

Amelia Kerr: 18w @ 8avg/4.5rpo
Leigh Kasperek: 13w @ 13avg/5.4rpo
Rosemary Mair: 9w @ 19avg/6.6rpo
Eden Carson: 8w @ 21avg/6.1rpo
Fran Jonas: 7w @ 18avg/5.5rpo
Lea Tahuhu: 7w @ 18avg/6rpo

Eden Carson 💫💫 #HBJShield pic.twitter.com/Sou9br8aCl
— The Niche Cache (@thenichecache) November 18, 2023

Aotearoa is well stocked for spinners and the four best White Ferns spinners are in that list above. This includes Kasperek who played a T20I last year but is behind Kerr, Carson and Jonas in the White Ferns depth chart. Mair is similar to Kasperek as she last played for White Ferns mid-way through 2022 and she has made a compelling case for selection as the second best seamer in Super Smash.

Mair is ahead of CD comrades Rowe (6w @ 28avg/6.8rpo) and Claudia Green (4w @ 35avg/5.9rpo) who are also in the White Ferns mix. This stretches further with Mair taking more wickets than Molly Penfold who essentially took Mair's spot in White Ferns teams, as well as Jess Kerr and Hayley Jensen.

J-Kerr has championship mana which could see her elevate for finals, CD's trio of seamers could find form to shake things up and Jensen will be eager to finish the campaign with wickets. The funkiest White Ferns angle for this pocket of Super Smash is seam bowling so tap in with who can take wickets consistently and how economical they are.

Blackcaps have been in and out of Super Smash so there is less funk here but some key performers have demanded further attention. The most notable bloke is Auckland's lefty seamer Ben Lister who continues to offer exciting nibble away from right-handers, into left-handed batters. Lister was one of five Blackcaps to bowling in 10+ T20I innings last year and one of six lads to take 10+ wickets, which has flowed into an excellent Super Smash campaign.

Lister is the only bloke who has played for Blackcaps in a group of 10 bowler with 9+ wickets for Super Smash. Here are the best Blackcaps bowlers in Super Smash...

Ben Lister: 12w @ 13avg/6.6rpo
Ajaz Patel: 8w @ 22avg/7.4rpo
Doug Bracewell: 7w @ 18avg/7.3rpo
Jacob Duffy: 7w @ 21avg/7.8rpo
Will O'Rourke: 6w @ 26avg/8.3rpo
Blair Tickner: 6w @ 41avg/9.9rpo
Lockie Ferguson: 5w @ 12avg/5.8rpo
Michael Bracewell: 5w @ 21avg/8rpo

The best batter with Blackcaps flavour is Dane Cleaver, who has played nine T20Is for Aotearoa as a wicket-keeper. Henry Nicholls joins Cleaver (and Tim Robinson) as the only lads with 200+ runs in super Smash, while Dean Foxcroft's Blackcaps promotion last year has been followed with more Super Smash runs. Aside from Will Young and Finn Allen, one funky lad to watch out for is Cole McConchie who has also enjoyed sneaky Blackcaps selections and is building a solid campaign this summer.

Dane Cleaver: 279 runs @ 39avg/139sr
Henry Nicholls: 213 runs @ 53avg/147sr
Dean Foxcroft: 189 runs @ 37avg/115sr
Doug Bracewell: 170 runs @ 34avg/215sr
Will Young: 166 runs @ 33avg/131sr
Finn Allen: 154 runs @ 77avg/177sr
Cole McConchie: 153 runs @ 30avg/137sr

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Peace and love.