Canterbury have already sealed a spot in the Ford Trophy final on Sunday with Central Districts taking on Wellington in the elimination final on Friday. Canterbury are chasing their third Ford Trophy championship in a row and CD won it in 2022/23, while Wellington last won the Ford Trophy in 2018/19 and will be hoping for some Basin Reserve magic to help them through finals weekend.

Stretching into HBJ Shield and Wellington is the only region with two teams in finals with the women's final featuring Wellington vs ND. This leaves Wellington with a chance of doing the one-day double, as well as the women doing the domestic double if they can add an HBJ Shield trophy to their Super Smash success.

Five batters scored 350+ runs this season and they will all be playing finals cricket. Henry Nicholls, Tom Latham and Brad Schmulian scored 400+ runs as the leading run-scorers, with Tim Robinson and Tom Blundell the leading batters for Wellington. Add in CD's Dean Foxcroft who is sixth for runs but is the only batter in the top-eight with a strike-rate over 100 and each finals team has two batters in slick form.

The four bowlers who have taken 16+ wickets will also be involved. Josh Clarkson couldn't quite keep up his dominant mahi from the first stanza but he is still top of the pops, tied for wickets with Wellington's James Hartshorn but the CD all-rounder has a slightly lower average. Michael Rae is third for wickets as part of an excellent Canterbury seam unit and Wellington's Peter Younghusband is the leading wicket-taker for spinners.

Second stanza form

Canterbury: Win, win, N/R, win, loss
Central Districts: Win, win, loss, N/R, win
Wellington: Loss, win, win, loss, win

Canterbury

Batting

Henry Nicholls: 473 runs @ 67.5avg/97sr, 3 x 100
Tom Latham: 458 runs @ 91.6avg/98sr, 2 x 100, 2 x 50
Matthew Boyle: 264 runs @ 44avg/99sr, 1 x 50
Chad Bowes: 258 runs @ 36.8avg/101sr, 1 x 100
Rhys Mariu: 227 runs @ 45.4avg/78sr, 1 x 50
Cole McConchie: 125 runs @ 62.5avg/102sr
Raunaq Kapur: 60 runs @ 87sr, 1 x 50
Mitchell Hay: 53 runs @ 13.2avg/79sr
Angus McKenzie: 44 runs @ 14.6avg/52sr
Michael Rae: 30 runs @ 30avg/176sr

Bowling

Michael Rae: 18w @ 20.2avg/4.7rpo, 1 x 5w
Fraser Sheat: 15w @ 23avg/4.7rpo
Angus McKenzie: 12w @ 23.9avg/4.4rpo
Lachlan Harper: 7w @ 14.8avg/4.8rpo
Cole McConchie: 6w @ 30.1avg/4.7rpo
Michael Rippon: 6w @ 30.5avg/5rpo
Raunaq Kapur: 3w @ 44.6avg/5.1rpo
Sean Davey: 3w @ 25.3avg/4.4rpo

Central Districts

Batting

Brad Schmulian: 439 runs @ 62.7avg/86sr, 2 x 100, 1 x 50
Dean Foxcroft: 340 runs @ 37.7avg/101sr, 4 x 50
Curtis Heaphy: 258 runs @ 64.5avg/64sr, 1 x 100, 1 x 50
Josh Clarkson: 246 runs @ 35.1avg/111sr, 1 x 100, 1 x 50
Tom Bruce: 237 runs @ 59.2avg/87sr, 1 x 100, 2 x 50
Dane Cleaver: 194 runs @ 21.5avg/85sr
Will Young: 152 runs @ 21.7avg/75sr, 1 x 50
Jayden Lennox: 43 runs @ 43avg/93sr
Ajaz Patel: 38 runs @ 38avg/115sr

Bowling

Josh Clarkson: 19w @ 19.5avg/4.9rpo, 1 x 5w
Jayden Lennox: 14w @ 27.8avg/4.7rpo
Raymond Toole: 10w @ 34.6avg/5.4rpo
Brett Randell: 9w @ 21.1avg/5.4rpo
Angus Schaw: 5w @ 22.4avg/4.6rpo
Blair Tickner: 5w @ 46.4avg/5.3rpo
Toby Findlay: 4w @ 46.2avg/6.8rpo
Ajaz Patel: 3w @ 45avg/5rpo
Dean Foxcroft: 2w @ 41.5avg/4.3rpo

Wellington

Batting

Tim Robinson: 370 runs @ 46.2avg/93sr, 2 x 100, 1 x 50
Tom Blundell: 367 runs @ 45.8avg/97sr, 3 x 50
Nick Kelly: 235 runs @ 23.5avg/73sr, 2 x 50
Nick Greenwood: 220 runs @ 24.4av/101sr, 2 x 50
Jesse Tashkoff: 171 runs @ 17.1avg/82sr, 1 x 50
Peter Younghusband: 160 runs @ 40avg/69sr, 1 x 50
Gareth Severin: 125 runs @ 25avg/76sr, 1 x 50
Natahn Smith: 115 runs @ 38.3avg/102sr, 1 x 50
Muhammad Abbas: 101 runs @ 25.2avg/61sr, 1 x 50
Callum McLachlan: 76 runs @ 15.2avg/107sr
Oscar Jackson: 66 runs @ 13.2avg/129sr, 1 x 50

Bowling

James Hartshorn: 19w @ 20.2avg/5.4rpo
Peter Younghusband: 16w @ 25.7avg/4.8rpo
Jesse Tashkoff: 12w @ 26.8avg/5.9rpo
Liam Dudding: 11w @ 25avg/4.8rpo
Michael Snedden: 7w @ 38.2avg/6rpo
Nick Greenwood: 5w @ 30.4avg/3.7rpo
Nathan Smith: 3w @ 51avg/4.9rpo
Tom Blundell: 1w @ 18avg/3.6rpo
Tim Robinson: 1w @ 54avg/6rpo

Best of the rest

Auckland

Cameron Fletcher: 255 runs @ 31.8avg/73sr
Bevon Jacobs: 251 runs @ 35.8avg/93sr
Adithya Ashok: 15w @ 25.6avg/5.4rpo
Simon Keene: 89 runs @ 22.2avg/102sr | 13w @ 20.5avg/5.4rpo

Northern Districts

Rob O'Donnell: 333 runs @ 41.6avg/86sr
Scott Kuggeleijn: 15w @ 21.9avg/5.3rpo
Tim Pringle: 13w @ 19.9avg/3.7rpo
Zak Gibson: 10w @ 21.4avg/4rpo

Otago

Max Chu: 252 runs @ 36avg/68sr
Jarrod McKay: 14w @ 21.3av/4.9rpo
Matthew Bacon: 11w @ 29avg/5rpo

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Peace and love.