The greatest T20 competition in the world starts on Boxing Day and as is the case every summer, the Super Smash will showcase New Zealand's best young cricketing talent. Before we enter the grind of daily games and far too many exciting wrinkles to digest, here are five funky emerging players for both the men's and women's competitions.

Prue Catton - Auckland

22-year-old Catton was Auckland's best batter in HBJ Shield and fifth for runs overall, then she finished second for runs in the North vs South T20 series. In her three innings during the North vs South series (103 runs @ 51.5avg), Catton had three 30+ scores and while her strike-rate of 111.9 was lower than most, she was notably better than Bella James (61 runs @ 20.3avg/98.3sr).

Catton had a different role in each game as well which makes her consistency even more impressive. She scored 32 runs @ 118.5sr batting fifth in the first game, then 32* @ 123sr as an opener and 39 runs @ 100sr batting three.

With a T20 batting strike-rate of 100.4 in 30 innings, Catton is one of the few young batters hitting the 100sr mark and her career average of 16.6 was impacted by her mahi last season where she scored 13 runs @ 1.8avg in the Super Smash. Prior to last season, Catton had a 50+ score in two consecutive seasons and she is in her best season of LA batting heading into this Super Smash.

Kayley Knight - Northern Districts

Despite the 22-year-old Knight only snaring 1w @ 64avg/9.1rpo in her two North vs South games, she is still the best emerging seamer in Aotearoa. That mahi was similar to Molly Penfold's 1w @ 61avg/8.7rpo though and while Penfold was good in her three HBJ Shield games (3w @ 22avg/3.6rpo), she wasn't as good as Knight (13w @ 11.6avg/3.6rpo).

How Knight peforms in the Super Smash will be fascinating because she has played far less T20 cricket than one-dayers and she is yet to bowl 10+ overs in a Super Smash season. Having not been a consistent member of ND's 1st 11, Knight's struggled to find a groove and her Super Smash mahi 37.4avg/7.6rpo reflects that.

She does have 14.1avg/5.5rpo in T20s for NZ Under 19s and is one of, if not the best seamer yet to enter the White Ferns mix so Knight should make an impact in Super Smash. Most of that will depend on Knight staying on the field and she enters Super Smash after one of her most active HBJ Shield campaigns so there are promising shoots here.

Xara Jetly - Wellington

As one of the best domestic cricket wahine so far this season, 24-year-old Jetly didn't take a wicket in her two innings during the North vs South T20 series. Jetly wasn't required to bat either after shining in a greater batting role for Wellington HBJ Shield and this frames the intrigue around Jetly's Super Smash role as she has the lowest batting strike-rate (51.8) of the 21 batters who have scored 120+ runs in HBJ Shield.

Jetly also averages 6.5 in T20 batting and she has a highest scores of 7*. With 15 batting innings in 55 games, Jetly hasn't been required to do much during Wellington's Super Smash dynasty which makes her promotion up Wellington's HBJ Shield batting order more intriguing.

There are plenty of opportunities opening up in the White Ferns spin mixer and Jetly's 21.6avg in List-A bowling, as well as her 19.3avg in T20 bowling make her one of the best spinners in Aotearoa. Add in top notch fielding, plenty of winning experience in Super Smash and a curious batting situation to amplify the funk around Jetly's mahi.

Missy Banks - Canterbury

24-year-old Banks is a seaming all-rounder who is one of the more powerful emerging batters in Aotearoa. She enters Super Smash with a wicket in seven consecutive games, including a wicket in each of her North vs South games which is part of her best season of HBJ Shield bowling.

Banks has 11w @ 18.1avg/4rpo in HBJ Shield which is her first LA season below 20avg. With a LA record of 41avg/4.6po, Banks' best format is T20 cricket though where she has a bowling record of 21.9avg/7.2rpo which features five consecutive T20 seasons averaging below 27 before this season.

With a knock of 12* @ 133.3sr in her only North vs South innings, Banks has always shown flashes of her attacking strokes in both formats. In the Super Smash last summer, Banks had a strike-rate of 112.8 and that was the highest batting strike-rate for Canterbury's local wahine with Banks also finishing not-out in five of her eight innings.

PJ Watkins - Otago

Having first appeared as a lefty seamer in Aotearoa, Watkins seems to have switched to spin bowling. The 21-year-old was solid in the first stanza of HBJ Shield but her mahi in the North vs South series commanded attention with 2w @ 24avg/6rpo in her three games and that made her one of the most economical spinners in the series.

She also scored 48 runs @ 48avg/133.3sr though and her all-round skillset is what makes her a funky emerging Super Smash player. After starting the series with 2* @ 100sr, Watkins then hit 20* @ 153.8sr and finished with 26 runs @ 123.8sr batting in the middle order. Watkins joins another impressive youngster in Anna Browning as Otago's spinny all-rounders but Watkins has shown the powerful batting that White Ferns selectors are eager to inject into their group.

Watkins' best bowling format is T20s where she averages 20.5 and in a small sample size she has 9.7avg/6.6rpo in Super Smash bowling. She has a batting strike-rate that is approaching 100 (95.4) and also averages 19.7 in LA batting, so Watkins could be a key player for Otago this season.

Simon Keene - Auckland

24-year-old Keene has been in fabulous form since he started opening the batting in last summer's Super Smash and while his seam bowling will be instrumental in Auckland's campaign, Keene's brutal batting leads his funk. Keene has a T20 career strike-rate of 171 and much of that stems from his mahi last season but he was also a swift scorer for NZ-A during their tour of South Africa a few months ago.

Keene scored 67 runs @ 167.5sr in the one longform game he played and that made him the only NZ-A batter with 10+ runs and a strike-rate over 100. That followed his one-day mahi where he scored 114 runs @ 128sr and the only other bloke over 100sr in this series was Dale Phillips' 133sr.

With scores of 52 and 152 in his last game, Keene has 46.5avg/81.5sr in Plunket Shield batting this season. He also has a wicket in every single innings across Ford Trophy and Plunket Shield, sitting among the leading wicket-takers in both competitions. As an all-rounder, Keene averages 20+ in all three batting zones and below 35 in all three bowling zones.

Lachlan Stackpole - Auckland

20-year-old Stackpole hit the most sixes in the Plunket Shield first stanza and the only other batter with 10+ sixes is Bevon Jacobs. Stackpole's well ahead of Jacobs for the most longform sixes though with 18 vs 10 and this is part of Stackpole having the highest batting strike-rate in Plunket Shield, as the only batter over 100sr.

Cruising along at 106.4sr with an average of 40.2, Stackpole has been the most destructive batter in Plunket Shield this season. The lefty was less effective in Ford Trophy with 12.6avg/84.4sr and his batting form has slipped a wee bit heading into Super Smash, so it will be interesting to see how Stackpole impacts winning for Auckland.

Also dabbling in spin bowling, Stackpole hasn't actually bowled this season with Auckland relying on their specialist spinners in Adithya Ashok and Rohit Gulati. This could forecast a more concentrated role for Stackpole and if he's concentrated on smacking boundaries, he will be mandatory viewing through the Super Smash.

Toby Findlay - Central Districts

22-year-old seamer Findlay played three games of Ford Trophy to start the season but hasn't played any Plunket Shield so far, which means that his eight T20 games are the most of his three formats. Findlay played a sneaky important role in CD's championship last summer and was then part of CD's Global Super League squad where he played one game with 1w @ 5.6rpo.

Add it all together and Findlay has 9w @ 19.3avg/7.5rpo in T20 bowling. He has struggled for a consistent role in the other formats but Findlay is another young seamer on the rise in Aotearoa who will ensure that the seam stocks are flush for the next few years. The combination of championship experience, overseas experience and the opportunity to be a 1st 11 bowler throughout the competition make Findlay an intriguing youngster to watch out for.

Matt Boyle - Canterbury

22-year-old Boyle was the leading run-scorer in Super Smash last season and had a record of 37.7avg/156.4sr, helping him to an overall T20 record of 29.3avg/146.6sr. Boyle was part of the NZ-A tour to Bangladesh where he gathered valuable experience overseas and rolled through a tough learning curve to finish the tour with a knock of 58 runs in his last innings.

Boyle then had a solid start to the season in Ford Trophy with 38avg/92.6sr and that flowed into Plunket Shield where he had 47.3avg/58sr. While he is lacking form heading into Super Smash with five scores below 25 in his last five innings, Boyle's prior mahi in Super Smash and his development journey in 2025 could see the lefty emerge as one of the best youngsters in Aotearoa.

Cameron Paul - Canterbury

There is lots of buzz about lots of young cricketers in New Zealand and 20-year-old Paul leads the hype despite still being a domestic deep cut. Paul is yet to play a Super Smash game and that makes him a funky emerging player to start with as we don't know much about his T20 mahi, although that is likely to change with more seam bowling spots available in Canterbury's stable.

Paul averages 21.7 in First-Class bowling and 14.8 in List-A bowling, offering effortless pace and nibble. There have also been signs of Paul's batting ability and this is notable because Paul comes from the same Darfield hub as Zak Foulkes, sharing the same all-round skillset and Gray Nicolls swag.

A FC batting record of 18.5avg/33sr is useful but not a major indicator of Paul's boundary hitting and he hasn't done anything of note in LA batting. Paul did score 91 runs against the touring West Indies a few weeks ago though and he was the leading run-scorer for the NZ 11 in that game, which doesn't fall into the FC bubble so he has a 50+ score in longform cricket but he doesn't have a 50+ score in FC batting.

To support The Niche Cache you can join the Patreon whanau or donate through Buy Me A Coffee. A little goes a long way to fund our mahi. Smash an ad.

Peace and love.