Otago Sparks were too good for Central Hinds in Dunedin before the Otago lads and Central Districts battled out a draw, which keeps the CD Stags in the mix for Super Smash finals. Otago women restricted CD to 107/7 in their 20 overs with Rosemary Mair the leading run-scorer (32 runs @ 91sr) as Emma Black took 4w @ 4.2rpo for the hosts.

Suzie Bates went about her regular mahi with 44 runs @ 151sr in the chase, along with Felicity Robertson finishing not-out on 20 runs @ 64sr as Otago reached 111/4 in 16.3ov for the win. Bates now has scores of 25, 23, 70, 84*, 33, 41*, 52*, 18 and 44 which takes her to 390 runs @ 65avg/115sr and Sparks will be hoping that the support cast continues to hold steady around Bates. Otago have three other batters with 100+ runs and 100+ strike-rates...

• Bella James: 153 runs @ 17avg/104sr

• Felicity Robertson: 123 runs @ 17avg/100sr

• Caitlin Blakely: 112 runs @ 22avg/113sr

Ahead of the Auckland vs Northern game on Saturday which could feature Skye Bowden (10w @ 12avg/7.6rpo), Black is the best seamer in wahine Super Smash. Otago are still without notable contributions from Hayley Jensen (52 runs @ 13avg/85sr) but that doesn't seem to matter when they Black and a strong spin unit which includes import Linsey Smith...

• Emma Black: 13w @ 14avg/5.8rpo

• Eden Carson: 9w @ 21avg/5.9rpo

• PJ Watkins: 8w @ 91avg/6.6rpo

• Linsey Smith: 7w @ 26avg/6.7rpo

• Molly Loe: 6w @ 10avg/5.6rpo

• Sophie Oldershaw: 3w @ 21avg/7.1rpo

• Suzie Bates: 3w @ 34avg/6.3rpo

• Hayley Jensen: 3w @ 68avg/6.8rpo

Along with her sneaky runs, Mair is CD's best bowler. Here's how the Hinds bowling group stacks up...

• Rosemary Mair: 9w @ 21avg/6.4rpo

• Hannah Rowe: 7w @ 27avg/6.8rpo

• Ashtuti Kumar: 5w @ 28avg/5.6rpo

• Priyanaz Chatterji: 4w @ 13avg/5rpo

• Claudia Green: 4w @ 42avg/6.4rpo

• Flora Devonshire: 2w @ 42avg/7rpo

CD Hinds also had 17-year-old Emma McLeod in their team and she scored 23 runs @ 67sr. This follows on from Northern Districts bringing youngster Eve Wolland into their team and like Natasha Wakelin, McLeod has already got a 50+ score in HBJ Shield.

Otago Volts batted first and scored 139/5 led by 42 runs @ 131sr from Dean Foxcroft. Jayden Lennox (2w @ 4.3rpo) as the best bowler for CD and then Tom Bruce slipped back into his run-scoring groove with 63 runs @ 143sr along with another hefty innings from Doug Bracewell (30 runs @ 150sr). Unfortunately for Bruce, he was unable to lead CD to victory but they were able to squeeze out a draw with Blair Tickner and Lennox finishing not-out.

Jacob Duffy took 2w @ 3.5rpo, Jake Gibson took 2w @ 10.2rpo and Travis Muller offered economical mahi with 1w @ 3.2rpo for Otago. Gibson and Muller are the leading wicket-takers for Otago, while Duffy continues his hot form with wickets in each of his last four games.

• Jake Gibson: 10w @ 19avg/8rpo

• Travis Muler: 10w @ 20avg/8.1rpo

• Jacob Duffy: 9w @ 18avg/7.1rpo

• Andrew Hazeldine: 6w @ 37avg/8.8rpo

• Ben Lockrose: 3w @ 56avg/8.4rpo

Foxcroft is still serving up fantastic T20 batting with his knock against CD fitting snug into his career stats of 41.5avg/127sr. This was Foxcroft's fourth 40+ score in eight innings and aside from his legendary T20 average, Foxcroft is one of five batters with 200+ runs this season (prior to Auckland vs Northern). This is the second season in a row where Foxcroft as led Otago for runs in Super Smash.

After a strong first stanza of Plunket Shield (58.75avg) and missing a cluster of Ford Trophy games, Bruce started slowly in Super Smash with five scores below 20. This has flipped for scores of 26*, 20 and 63 over the last three games as CD Stags battle for a finals spot.

Bracewell has jumped up to the top of the highest strike-rate rankings with 202sr, making him the only bloke over 200sr. Small didn't take any wickets against Otago but his 16w @ 13avg/8rpo means that he has almost taken half of his 40 career T20 wickets this season. Lennox is also sizzling with wickets in seven of his eight innings bowled and this gives him a bonkers T20 record of 16.34avg/7.3rpo.

Join the Niche Cache Patreon whanau to support our kiwi sports content straight up, get a karma boost and find extra podcasts.

Every Monday and Friday we fire off an email newsletter with bonus content. Sign up here!

Peace and love.