Super Smash is flowing like the Waimakariri and with games being played every day, we will focus on a few funky players who are shining with first update zoning in on Bevon Jacobs, Izzy Sharp, Cameron Paul and Xara Jetly.

Jacobs has hit two 50+ scores in Auckland's first two games and if he's scoring runs in T20 cricket, Jacobs is scoring them swiftly. In the season opener, Jacobs smacked 55 runs @ 177.4sr with more sixes than fours (4/3) before he danced on his stumps. That game was eventually rained off after Auckland's batting innings and Jacobs repeated the dose in their second game vs Wellington with 54 runs @ 180sr.

Jacobs even repeated his boundary splits (4/3 again) and as he's one of the few batters who have had two innings, Jacobs leads Super Smash for the most sixes. He also has 38 sixes in T20 cricket and 40 fours, so he's not far off hitting more sixes than fours in his T20 career. While Jacobs now averages 30+ in T20I and T20 batting, the funkiest thing about his mahi this season is how he is dominating all formats for Auckland.

His career mahi tells that story...

FC: 53.23avg/66.4sr
LA: 25.36avg/100.2sr
T20: 31.55avg/144sr

Jacobs is Auckland's leading run-scorer in Plunket Shield and Super Smash. That reflects his excellent career mahi in the longest and shortest formats and he is one of four Auckland batters with 130+ runs in Ford Trophy, with a strike-rate nudging 100 (99.2). Jacobs has a 50+ score in all three formats this season and he's passed that mark seven times so far this season.

Sharp is in a fabulous groove across the pockets this season. She is Canterbury's second best batter in HBJ Shield with 195 runs @ 32.5avg/87sr and she was third for runs in the North vs South T20 series, smacking 91 runs @ 30.3avg/157sr. Then Sharp started Super Smash with 65* @ 138sr vs Otago and she was Canterbury's only batter to score 35+ runs.

The combination of crafty sweeps on both sides of the wicket and six hitting makes Sharp the most impressive young wahine batter in Aotearoa. Sharp played reverse sweeps over the off-side wall against Otago and hit two sixes, with Aussie Laura Harris the only player in women's Super Smash who has hit more sixes so far.

This fits into a trend of Sharp banging sixes. She hit five in the North vs South series and no other batter hit four, let alone five. Sharp also has a six in HBJ Shield as the only Canterbury batter with a six and while nine other players have a six in HBJ Shield, Sharp is the only batter in this group with a strike-rate over 85.

Sharp has the fifth highest strike-rate in HBJ Shield, as well as being fifth in the North vs South series and she is third for Super Smash strike-rates (20+ runs). At 21-years-old, Sharp has a T20I strike-rate of 104 after three innings and her T20 strike-rate is now 115.5 after 34 innings.

Another emerging force in women's cricket is Xara Jetly. She is tied with Central Districts spinner Elizabeth Cohr and Wellington homie Jess Kerr as the leading wicket-takers in HBJ Shield on 14 wickets. After two Wellington games in Super Smash, Jetly is the only bowler with 4 wickets and she is currently averaging below 17 in both competitions.

HBJ Shield: 164 runs @ 41avg/52sr | 14w @ 16.2avg/4.4rpo
Super Smash: 21 runs @ 110.5sr | 4w @ 12avg/6.2rpo

Jetly has scored 20+ runs or been not-out in six of her seven innings this season and her only games without a wicket were her two innings in the North vs South series. Jetly bowled 5.3 overs @ 9.2rpo but she quickly settled back into her groove with wickets, runs and nifty fielding in Super Smash.

With a List-A average of 21.67 and T20 average of 19.53, Jetly has been doing this for a while now and she has been a key player in the Wellington Blaze Super Smash dynasty. Now she has a bigger batting role for Wellington and while her HBJ Shield batting strike-rate (41avg/52sr) is lower than many, Jetly's 21* in the first game had a strike-rate of 110.5.

The deepest cut in Aotearoa cricket is Canterbury's emerging all-rounder Cameron Paul. The 21-year-old played his first Super Smash game and was the leading wicket-taker for Canterbruy in their win vs Otago. Paul took 3w @ 8rpo which made him the best seamer from both teams in this game and this is aligned with how Paul has started his domestic career.

FC: 21.78avg/3.9rpo
LA: 14.8avg/4.3rpo
T20: 10.6avg/8rpo

Paul has two 5-wicket baggies in his first 10 innings of FC bowling and he has wickets in eight of those innings, taking 2+ wickets in six of them. Paul has played three Ford Trophy games for Canterbury with a wicket in all of them and he showed his Darfield batting skills with 91 runs for NZ 11 vs West Indies which wasn't registered as a FC game.

Without that 50+ score, Paul is still averaging 18.5 in his six FC batting innings. Here's his mahi so far this season...

NZ 11 vs West Indies: 9ov @ 2.8rpo | 91 runs @ 67sr (10x4, 3x6)
Plunket Shield vs Auckland: 13ov, 3w @ 3.6rpo | 25 runs @ 40sr | 18ov, 2w @ 3.7rpo
Super Smash vs Otago: 4ov, 3w @ 8rpo

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Peace and love.