Wellington Blaze and Central Stags are Super Smash champions. This adds another ribbon of excellence to the Blaze dynasty as they have won six of the last eight seasons of Super Smash, while Central Districts grabbed their second championship during this period with Tom Bruce and Blair Tickner featuring heavily in both campaigns.

There was a clear home advantage for Blaze at the Basin Reserve and this is the biggest home advantage across both Super Smash competitions as Wellington loves to rally behind their legendary T20 outfit. Blaze had to defeat Northern Brave on Saturday and then Otago on Sunday to seal victory, which is pretty funky considering Otago Sparks won both games vs Blaze earlier in the season.

Sparks won by 7 wickets in Wellington and followed it up with another 7 wicket win in Dunedin a few days later. Led by the impeccable Amelia Kerr though, Blaze are well versed in championship mahi and they executed the scary 'Blaze squeeze' perfectly in both finals games.

Blaze put up scores of 133/6 and 104/8 batting first in the two finals games. Those aren't the biggest totals and no Blaze batter scored 30+ runs. They rolled Northern Districts for 110 on Saturday and restricted Otago to 96/9 on Sunday, overpowering two strong batting line ups with classy bowling and ruthless fielding.

All of which is led by A-Kerr who has elevated to a rare tier of Aotearoa sporting mana. A-Kerr is the best batter, bowler and fielder in the competition/New Zealand but her leadership has emerged as a defining wrinkle of her young legend status. Not only does A-Kerr have a 'follow me' leadership style, she drives the clinical winning style of Blaze as well as managing short-term imports and inspiring emerging players to contribute.

A-Kerr has been a consistent presence throughout this dynasty. She has played at least seven games in each of the last eight seasons, meanwhile the most dominant Super Smash player in Aotearoa Sophie Devine has hit that mark in just two of the eight seasons. A-Kerr (81) has doubled the amount of games played by Devine (42) during this period and she has been excellent in all of them...

Devine played five games this season, Leigh Kasperek only played three games and Xara Jetly missed the finals weekend. Jess McFadyen didn't feature prominently with the bat but she reminded folks throughout Super Smash that she is the best women's wicket-keeper in Aotearoa. Wellington also had two Aotearoa Under 19 representatives in Kate Chandler and Hannah Francis who played two games each before departing for the U19 T20 World Cup. They were able to call on Aussies Elysse Perry, Maitlan Brown and Hannah Darlington who all added value, which was balanced by leaning on youngsters like Natasha Coydre and Sam Mackinder who played 10+ games.

A-Kerr finished as the leading run-scorer and wicket-taker for Blaze, but there were important contributions from Jess Kerr and Rebecca Burns. J-Kerr was second for Blaze wickets and this was her fifth Super Smash taking 10+ wickets, so her bowling prowess isn't new.

J-Kerr scored 100+ runs for the first time in her 10th season of Super Smash and she blasted past that mark with 326 runs. Prior to this season her highest Super Smash score was 25* and she hit her first 50+ burger this season, finishing with three 50+ scores. That's the same number of 50+ scores as A-Kerr and Burns, which puts Jess in the same elite tier of all-round mahi as Amelia.

Burns scored 269 runs and it was her second Super Smash with 200+ runs, although this was her first season with at least two 50+ scores. With three 50+ scores in Super Smash prior to this season, Burns offered the same number in this season alone and she was slightly behind J-Kerr for the highest strike-rates of Wellington's best batters...

Wellington Blaze

Amelia Kerr: 441 runs @ 63avg/109sr | 15w @ 17avg/6rpo
Jess Kerr: 326 runs @ 36avg/119sr | 14w @ 16avg/5.1rp
Rebecca Burns: 269 runs @ 26avg/113sr
Maitlan Brown: 93 runs @ 18avg/108sr | 9w @ 16avg/6.3rpo
Hannah Darlington:61 runs @ 15avg/75sr | 7w @ 10avg/6.6rpo
Caitlin King: 58 runs @ 14avg/89sr
Jess McFadyen: 42 runs @ 7avg/66sr
Sophie Devine: 38 runs @ 9avg/88sr | 8w @ 13avg/6.1rpo
Leigh Kasperek: 11 runs @ 5avg/48sr | 7w @ 8avg/5.4rpo
Sam Mackinder: 15 runs @ 5avg/100sr
Xara Jetly: 8 runs @ 4avg/114sr | 8w @ 25avg/6.6rpo
Nicole Baird: 7 runs @ 2avg/77sr
Natasha Codyre: 6 runs @ 200sr

The Super Smash legend of Bruce and Tickner is growing thanks to another fabulous season of T20 cricket from them both. The last time CD won Super Smash was in the 2018/19 season and they had Bruce leading their run-scoring, while Tickner was the leading wicket-taker. It's the same story this summer as Bruce was the only Stags batter with 300+ runs and Tickner was their only bowler with 13+ wickets.

2018/19

Tom Bruce: 353 runs @ 39avg/158sr
Blair Tickner: 16w @ 15avg/7.7rpo

2024/25

Tom Bruce: 339 runs @ 56avg/158sr
Blair Tickner: 16w @ 18avg/9.2rpo

The funky thing about this CD championship is how a wide range of lads chipped in. Six batters scored 100+ runs and they all had 110+ strike-rates. Five bowlers took 8+ wickets and they all conceded less than 9.5rpo - Tickner was the only bowler over with 8w who conceded more than 8rpo (9.2rpo).

Ajaz Patel didn't play in the Super Smash. Jayden Lennox was the main spinner and Angus Schaw played second fiddle, but not by much as he was only a smidge behind Lennox for overs/wickets/rpo. Schaw also whacked 76 runs @ 177sr with a knock of 20* @ 167sr in a win vs Otago and 16* @ 400sr to seal a win vs Auckland.

23-year-old Will Clark finished 17* @ 170sr in the final and he hit 23* @ 192sr to seal a win over Wellington at Basin Reserve earlier in the campaign. He finished with 130 runs @ 26avg/137sr, also bowling a few overs when required.

Clark averages 35 or below with the ball in all three formats, while his batting mahi is among the best for youngsters in Aotearoa with 42.4avg (FC), 39.7avg/94sr (LA) and 24.8avg/120sr (T20). Clark is a 1st 11 all-rounder for CD in all formats, enabling CD to absorb the absence of Josh Clarkson who only played half of Super Smash and didn't do much when he did play.

Will Young also played just four games and in a group with plenty of depth, 21-year-old Curtis Heaphy played every game. Heaphy had the trickiest job of any CD player because his role was constantly changing and while he's stacked up runs early in his career, he hadn't shown the crisp scoring rate that Clark or other young batters have in any of the formats.

Here are Heaphy's last five games...

vs Auckland: opening batting, 10 runs @ 111sr
vs Canterbury: opening batting, 78 runs @ 137sr
vs Canterbury: batting four, 12* @ 67sr (when no other CD batter scored 10+ runs)
vs Auckland: batting seven, 7* @ 233sr (winning mahi with Schaw)
vs Canterbury: batting six, 13* @ 150sr (winning mahi with Clark)

The youngest CD player had four different batting roles leading into and during finals. Heaphy had three not-out innings while batting in three different spots and he also averages 50.2 in LA, along with 37.4 in FC.

Then there is 21-year-old (slightly older than Heaphy) Toby Findlay who quietly got better as his debut Super Smash season rolled along...

vs Wellington: 4ov @ 8.2rpo
vs Otago: 1ov @ 7rpo
vs Auckland: 4ov, 2w @ 5.2rpo
vs Canterbury: 4ov, 1w @ 8.2rpo
vs Auckland: 3ov, 2w @ 11.3rpo
vs Canterbury: 4ov, 3w @ 7.2rpo

Findlay took 5/8 wickets in the last couple of Super Smash games. He showed good pace, bounce, accuracy and nibble throughout the competition, then his change up doosras were highly effective in the final. Findlay dismissed Daryl Mitchell, Henry Shipley and Matt Henry in the last five overs as they were trying to whack boundaries and this went a long way to stopping Canterbury reach 150 runs.

Central Stags

Tom Bruce: 339 runs @ 56avg/158sr
Jack Boyle: 285 runs @ 31avg/131sr
Dane Cleaver: 216 runs @ 24avg/128sr
Curtis Heaphy: 195 runs @ 27avg/111sr
Will Clark: 130 runs @ 26avg/137sr | 3w @ 25avg/10.7rpo
Will Young: 101 runs @ 25avg/111sr
Angus Schaw: 76 runs @ 38avg/177sr | 8w @ 26avg/7.7rpo
Josh Clarkson: 86 runs @ 21avg/126sr | 1w @ 45avg/11.2rpo
Blair Tickner: 16w @ 18avg/9.2rpo
Brett Randell: 12w @ 20avg/7.7rpo
Jayden Lennox: 9w @ 27avg/7.3rpo
Toby Findlay: 8w @ 19avg/7.8rpo
Joey Field: 2w @ 36avg/9.1rpo

Enjoy our cricket coverage? Join the Niche Cache Patreon whanau to support our kiwi sports content straight up, get a karma boost and find extra podcasts. You can also Buy Me A Coffee to show your support.

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

Peace and love.