Auckland are top of the Ford Trophy ladder after their win over Canterbury and a big hundy from 21-year-old Curtis Heaphy led Central Districts to their first win of the season. CD were too good for Otago in Dunedin and despite an impressive win in their first game, Otago are now bottom of the table with a 1-3 record.

Wellington defeated Northern Districts in Hamilton which bumps them up to a 2-1 record in third. Canterbury is second with the same 2-1 record as Wellington, while ND and CD have one win like Otago but they only have two losses.

Heaphy hit 142 runs @ 97.9sr and was supported by the CD top-order as Brad Schmulian hit 78 runs @ 101sr and Jack Boyle added 53 runs @ 126sr. Jake Gibson was the best bowler for Otago with 3w @ 6.7rpo as CD stacked up 330/7 and then dismissed Otago for 222, who had their own young batter Thorn Parkes leading the way with 59 runs @ 84sr. Jayden Lennox (3w @ 6.9rpo), Blair Tickner (2w @ 3.2rpo) and Will Clark (2w @ 5.6rpo) were CD's leading wicket-takers.

Heaphy now has a First-Class and List-A century, with this century following a knock of 41* in CD's last game vs Wellington which was rained off after 22.4 overs. While this was his first LA century, Heaphy averaged 40+ after his first Ford Trophy campaign with three 50+ scores. Now Heaphy is averaging 49.7 in LA batting, along with 35.5avg in FC batting.

Even though he wound up playing funky strokes later in his innings and finish his hefty knock with a strike-rate close to 100, Heaphy had 30 runs from his first 50 deliveries vs Otago. Heaphy appears to be a classic opening batter as he is disciplined with his strokes and builds into an innings. This is evident in his LA career strike-rate of 63.5, as well as 36sr in FC batting and he is the only batter who has a strike-rate below 75 in group of eight batters with 150+ Ford Trophy runs.

CD also have 28-year-old Boyle brewing runs. Boyle hit a century in the festival of runs at Pukekura Park a week ago and now has two 50+ scores in four games, which is aligned with LA being his best format. Boyle averages 36.4 in LA batting and dips below 25avg in the other formats, plus he almost has as many LA centuries as halfies (5 vs 7).

Parkes had his best knock of the campaign for Otago and despite averaging 21 this season, Parkes is a 24-year-old averaging 40.3 in LA batting. Add in a solid start to his FC career with 32avg as Otago's opening batter and Parkes is quietly establishing himself as one of the best emerging openers, a smidge behind Heaphy.

Otago are bottom of the ladder with Luke Georgeson rolling through his first season as skipper of a domestic cricket team. Despite averaging 24.7 with the ball in LA cricket, Georgeson only has 1w @ 57avg so far in Ford Trophy. That's balanced by scores of 40, 34, 40 and 40 in the middle order for Otago with an overall strike-rate of 101.

ND managed to dismiss Wellington for 248 in 48.3ov but they could only muster 199 runs in 37.3ov in defeat. Muhammad Abbas led Wellington's batting mahi with 79 runs @ 113sr and their tally was boosted by efficient hitting from Nathan Smith (17 runs @ 121.4sr) and Peter Younghusband (10* @ 142.8sr).

Younghusband flowed into a 5-wicket-baggy as he ripped through ND's lower order (5w @ 5.6rpo). Wellington also had 2w @ 2.6rpo from Smith and Logan van Beek took 2w @ 8.2rpo. Brett Hampton tried to drag ND to victory with 53 runs @ 147sr but he he was dismissed by Younghusband, with Hampton currently on 97 runs @ 32avg/123sr and that's in tune with LA career where he has 34avg/108.5sr.

Smith is now on 44 runs @ 22avg/85sr and 3w @ 20avg/3.2rpo in the Ford Trophy. Abbas hit his first 50+ score of the summer which takes him to 101 runs @ 33avg/88sr. While Abbas averages 42.3 in FC batting, his one-day stuff is slowly building and this was his second 50+ score in eight innings with 26.8avg/81sr in his LA career.

Younghusband is in a group of experienced bowlers who are dominating Ford Trophy so far. Matthew Bacon (31yrs), Blair Tickner (31yrs), Younghusband (34yrs) and Lockie Ferguson (33yrs) are the only bowlers with 7+ wickets. This was Younghusband's first LA 5-fer and he will be eager to take more LA wickets as this is his worst format...

First-Class: 31.18avg/3.4rpo
List-A: 39avg/5.3rpo
T20: 23.4avg/7rpo

Ferguson snared 3w @ 3.6rpo as Auckland rolled Canterbury for 109, after Simon Keene knocked the top of Canterbury's batting line up and finished with 5w @ 4.1rpo. 23-year-old Keene has had a fascinating start to his career after a fabulous debut Plunket Shield season...

2012/22: 25w @ 14.2avg
2022/23: 8w @ 49.8avg
2023/24: 1w @ 152avg

Keene has 10w in LA bowling and most of them stem from a 4-wicket-haul in 2021/22, then his mahi vs Canterbury. Things get funkier though as Keene opened the batting for Auckland in their first game with Finn Allen not playing and Keene bowled 1ov @ 13rpo. Keene opened the batting again in the second game but didn't bowl and then he didn't bowl before batting down the order in Auckland's third game.

Keene opened the bowling against Canterbury and wasn't required to bat as Auckland cruised to victory (108/3) in 21.4ov. Not only did Keene open the bowling for the first time this season, it was his second game bowling after getting a single over previously. Keene has flashed dominant mahi with the ball and is clearly a talented all-rounder as he averages 29 in FC batting, although he hasn't quite pounced on his batting opportunity this season with 24 runs @ 12avg/86sr.

Most notably, Keene has been shown plenty of faith by new Auckland coach Rob Nicol with selection in all four games even though his role varies game to game. Along with his FC batting average, Keene averages 26.6 in FC bowling, 13.7 in LA batting and 18.6 in LA bowling. The fact that those stats are solid despite Keene enduring patches of few runs/wickets in both formats offers optimism that Keene can find a consistent groove.

One more note from Auckland's win is Adithya Ashok taking 1w @ 1.8rpo and currently sitting as the second best Ford Trophy spinner behind Younghusband. That makes Ashok the best young spinner so far with 5w @ 26.2avg/4.7rpo and fellow emerging Blackcap Dean Foxcroft also has 5w @ 38.8avg/6.3rpo as he builds towards the tour of Sri Lanka.

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