Wellington Firebirds added two more cricketers to the seemingly endless supply of talented youngsters in Aotearoa with Samuel Morgan and Oscar Jackson contributing to their win vs Canterbury. This is a theme of the Blackcaps pipeline as new players have found ways to contribute across all levels and Morgan offers the latest example with 55 runs @ 167sr on Super Smash debut.

This was the 22-year-old's first game at the domestic level for Wellington and aside from flexing his power in his only six and bashing the ball on the leg-side, the way Morgan carved up the off-side commanded attention. That one knock gives Morgan the highest batting strike-rate for Wellington batters with 10+ runs and he could face the same Canterbury bowling unit in Wellington's final game on Thursday.

Aside from Tom Blundell's 41 runs @ 164, the only notable scores for Wellington came from two other emerging batters. Muhammad Abbas hit 43 runs @ 139sr and Jesse Tashkoff hit 31 runs @ 141sr as they continue their solid mahi this season. Tashkoff is second for Wellington runs behind Blundell and his 30.1avg/159sr in Super Smash is boosting his career mahi...

FC: 30.55avg/71sr
LA: 34.15avg/100sr
T20: 23.61avg/138sr

Wellington's bowlers wrapped up the Canterbury innings fairly easily with Logan van Beek (3w @ 6rpo) and Ben Sears (2w @ 5rpo) leading the attack. 21-year-old Jackson also took 2w @ 6.3rpo as the fifth bowler used and like all youngsters in Aotearoa, Jackson offered good pace and movement in his own style. The bounce he got to take his first wicket was especially notable and he appears to be a bowler who can surprise batters with his action.

As an all-rounder, Jackson is part of an almighty wave of highly skilled cricketers who add value in all aspects of the game. This wasn't Jackson's Super Smash debut as he played in the loss to Otago recently and showed his batting ability with 16* @ 133sr batting sixth. Jackson batted sixth again against Canterbury and was dismissed first ball but his flash vs Otago and the role he was selected for offers insight into how his talent is viewed at Wellington.

Wellington Blaze had a win over Canterbury (0-7 in Super Smash) and they funkiest pocket for the Blaze is how their hearty Wellingtonians are holding it down without their best players from the opening phase. Georgia Plimmer (36 runs @ 109sr), Jess Kerr (18 runs @ 86sr), Xara Jetly (27 runs @ 108sr) and Jess McFadyen (18 runs @ 112sr) were the only Blaze batters who scored 10+ runs vs Canterbury and along with Nicole Baird, they led the bowling innings to roll over Canterbury.

Xara Jetly: 1w @ 3.3rpo
Jess Kerr: 4w @ 4.5rpo
Jess Simmons: 1w @ 7rpo
Nicole Baird: 2w @ 3.3rpo
Rachel Bryant: 1w @ 6.5rpo
Hannah Francis: 1ov @ 9rpo

Here's how the senior Blaze players have performed throughout Super Smash...

Georgia Plimmer: 208 runs @ 23.1avg/102sr
Jess Kerr: 164 runs @ 20.5avg/121sr | 13w @ 16.7avg/6.4rpo
Xara Jetly: 126 runs @ 31.5avg/104sr | 13w @ 13.4avg/5.7rpo
Jess McFadyen: 63 runs @ 31.5avg/146sr
Nicole Baird: 10w @ 14.7avg/6.6rpo

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Peace and love.