Otago brushed aside Central Districts in both games in Palmerston North and Northern Districts did the double against Auckland in Hamilton in the last two Super Smash game days. As Wellington hosts Otago today, this Super Smash Scout will focus on the ND vs Auckland match up and while it's tricky to keep up with the daily supply of Super Smash, we're having a crack so support the mahi in any way you can.

ND had dominant performances from their overseas imports Chamari Athapaththu and Amanda-Jade Wellington in their win over Auckland. They were the only ND batters to score 30+ runs in their 152/7 and Athapaththu was the only ND bowler to take 2 wickets, although every ND bowler snared a wicket.

Caitlin Gurrey hit 22 runs @ 96sr and the kiwi bowlers who took a wicket were Nensi Patel (9rpo), Marama Downes (6.7rpo), Shriya Naidu (7rpo) and Jess Watkin (6.5rpo). ND have had Natasha Wakelin and Eve Wolland depart for the Under 19 World Cup which has seen them move to a more experienced 1st 11 with the likes of Sam Barriball and Marina Lamplough stepping in.

ND is now 2-1 and here are their best performing kiwi players...

Jess Watkin: 94 runs @ 31avg/162sr | 3w @ 29avg/7.4rpo
Caitlin Gurrey: 70 runs @ 23avg/101sr
Carol Agafili: 44 runs @ 22avg/133sr
Marama Downes: 3w @ 24avg/6rpo

Auckland has dropped to 1-3 and will play CD who are 0-5 in Napier on Wednesday. A team with five current White Ferns probably shouldn't be near the bottom of the ladder but we'll see how they go against the Hinds and then dive deeper into their campaign.

Bevon Jacobs (22yrs) and Katene Clarke (25yrs) both hit scores of 90 in the men's game. Jacobs hit 90* @ 161sr and along with Jock McKenzie's (23yrs) 35* @ 175sr, they were the only Auckland batters who scored 30+ runs.

Clarke hit 90 runs @ 158sr and had Rob O'Donnell batting alongside him for most of the innings, with O'Donnell finishing on 73* @ 192sr. Both Clarke and O'Donnell have struggled for runs this season before exploding at Seddon Park, here are their stats this season across the formats...

Katene Clarke

Ford Trophy: 70 runs @ 17avg/87sr - high score of 37
Super Smash: 112 runs @ 37avg/153sr - scores of 8, 22, 0 in three T20s before this game

Clarke's career stats

FC: 22.6avg/59sr

LA: 25.6avg/90sr
T20: 23.8avg/139sr

Rob O'Donnell

Plunket Shield: 161 runs @ 26.8avg/51sr - high score of 44

Ford Trophy: 66 runs @ 16avg/67sr - high score of 36

Super Smash: 111 runs @ 55avg/185sr - scores of 14 and 24 before this game

O'Donnell has a T20 record of 36.23avg/130.4sr and this is the fifth highest T20 batting average for kiwis in New Zealand with 1,000+ runs, third highest for current players behind Devon Conway (52.33avg @ 138.8sr) and Dean Foxcroft (43.8avg/127.4sr).

Jacobs is well above that mark early in his career with 281 runs @ 46.83avg/171sr. With scores of 53, 4 and 90* in the Super Smash, Jacobs now has five 50+ scores in his last 10 games which includes his three 50+ scores in Plunket Shield. The T20 hype around Jacobs is legit but don't overlook Jacobs as one of the best emerging batters in Aotearoa and his innings against ND serves as another example of his craft as he batted over 15 overs to finish not-out.

McKenzie is also brewing as one of the best young all-rounders. As the leading wicket-taker heading into the Wellington vs Otago game, McKenzie obviously leads Auckland for wickets and he's also third for Auckland runs. Here are his game logs in the Super Smash...

vs Otago: 16 runs @ 107sr
vs Canterbury: 14 runs @ 140sr | 3w @ 9.3rpo
vs Canterbury: 3w @ 8rpo | 15* @ 107sr
vs ND: 35* @ 175sr | 3w @ 8.2rpo

Here is McKenzie's career mahi

FC: 41avg/52sr | 66.6avg/2.9rpo
LA: 18.6avg/69sr | 41.4avg/5.5rpo
T20: 29.3avg/137sr | 16avg/9.3rpo

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