Plunket Shield rolls along and along with all the basic information covered after each round, here are five hot pockets of funk as we near the end of the season.

Matua Henry Nicholls and Brad Schmulian

Henry Nicholls has scored seven centuries in 16 innings across Plunket Shield and Ford Trophy this season, with 500+ runs in both competitions. He managed 96* for Canterbury in their rained off game vs Otago last week so he just missed out on another century. Nicholls didn't have a 50+ score in Super Smash this season but he's making up for it in the other formats and given that he has a century in his last Test series, as well as a 64 in his last ODI series, folks shouldn't be so quick to shuffle Nicholls out of the Blackcaps mixer.

Plunket Shield: 563 runs @ 140.7avg/74sr, 3 x 100, 1 x 50
Ford Trophy: 588 runs @ 73.5avg/96sr, 4 x 100
Super Smash: 121 runs @ 30.2avg/125sr
FC: 41.92avg/53.7sr
LA: 43.32avg/85.2sr
T20: 31.62avg/128sr

Brad Schmulian isn't in the Blackcaps mixer and at 35-years-old he probably won't ever be in the international arena. He is however one of the most dominant batters in the longer formats on the domestic circuit and he added another century to his tally in Central Districts' draw with Wellington last week.

Schmulian also took 4 wickets in the first innings with his leggies and is currently averaging 41.8 in First-Class batting as well as 27.2 in FC bowling. Schmulian's List-A average of 46.27 is in the same realm as Kane Williamson (47.33) and Luteru Taylor (45.03) for the highest LA averages for kiwis with 50+ innings (CD homie Curtis Heaphy has only had 31 innings so he doesn't fit this zone but his 53.13 is top-10 for all LA batters around the world).

Plunket Shield: 593 runs @ 74.1avg/64sr, 2 x 100, 2 x 50
Ford Trophy: 466 runs @ 51.7avg/86sr, 2 x 100, 1 x 50
FC: 41.86avg/56.9sr
LA: 46.27avg/79.9sr

Sneaky Zak Gibson

One of the best seamers across the formats this summer is Northern Districts' Zak Gibson. He is 28-years-old and has played less than 40 games in each format, with less than 25 games in FC and T20 cricket, which sums up the battle for seamers staying healthy through their early-20s. This may have also made it tricky for Gibson to settle into a regular groove with ND and with more steady game time he is averaging below 22 in all three formats (career mahi)...

Punket Shield: 13w @ 21.3avg/2.7rpo (FC: 38.7avg/3.8rpo)
Ford Trophy: 10w @ 21.4avg/4rpo (LA: 34.5avg/5.1rpo)
Super Smash: 7w @ 15.4avg/7.7rpo (T20: 25.4avg/8.1rpo)

Gibson's well below his career averages and economy rates in each format this summer. He featured in the Super Smash championship win for ND with wickets in four consecutive games including the final, then he continued his streak with wickets in his next five innings. That's nine consecutive innings with at least a wicket and six of them have 2+ wickets.

Gibson has the lowest bowling average for ND lads with 10+ wickets in Plunket Shield and the second lowest average for that mark in Ford Trophy. His 7w @ 15.42avg was the lowest bowling average for ND in Super Smash.

Emerging swifty scorers

Four batters have scored 300+ runs with strike-rates over 75 and all four have vibrant averages. They are all emergers with multi-format Blackcaps potential...

Lachlan Stackpole (20yrs): 356 runs @ 39.5avg/108.53sr
Bevon Jacobs (23yrs): 383 runs @ 42.5avg/79.46sr
Jesse Tashkoff (25yrs): 310 runs @ 38.7avg/78.68sr
Simon Keene (24yrs): 387 runs @ 48.3avg/76.63sr

In the latest round Stackpole hit 74 runs @ 121.3sr and Keene had scores of 41 runs @ 95.3sr and 67 runs @ 55.8sr. Jacobs didn't do much in Auckland's loss vs ND but he is one of the best emerging batters in Aotearoa right now, while Tashkoff hit 109 runs @ 80.7sr opening the batting for Wellington.

Also salute to Tim Robinson who is just below the 75sr mark but like the others, his 393 runs @ 49.1avg/73.73sr shows how he can roll with the formats for Wellington.

Stackpole is the only batter with a strike-rate over 90 let alone 100 and he is the only batter with more than 10 sixes. Jacobs has 10 and Stackpole has 21 ... while Keene is the leading run-scorer for Auckland. Tashkoff only played one game in each of his first two seasons and more game time has seen him stack up back to back seasons with 300+ runs and averages around 38.

Bevon Jacobs - 23yrs

FC: 47.89avg/66sr
LA: 27.4avg/97.1sr
T20: 38.69avg/146.6sr

Simon Keene - 24yrs

FC: 32.3avg/63.6sr | 32avg/3.2rpo
LA: 29.16avg/98.5sr | 23.26avg/5.3rpo
T20: 21.4avg/164.6sr | 34.6avg/8.2rpo

Lachlan Stackpole - 20yrs

FC: 31.81avg/78.5sr
LA: 23.3avg/89.2sr
T20: 19.54avg/146.2sr

Jesse Tashkoff - 25yrs

FC: 34.6avg/73.3sr | 60.2avg/4.2rpo
LA: 28.36avg/94.7sr | 35.8avg/5.7rpo
T20: 22.42avg/137.4sr | 56.7avg/9.4rpo

FC seasons

2022/23: 28 runs @ 14avg
2023/24: 37 runs @ 18.5avg
2024/25: 317 runs @ 39.6avg, 1 x 100, 2 x 50
2024/25: 310 runs @ 38.7avg, 1 x 100, 1 x 50

Otago's new young wave

Jacob Cumming scored 58 runs opening the batting for Otago in their draw with Canterbury and Tom Jones scored 57 runs. Lefty seamer Thomas O'Connor took 3 wickets as well and all three are 22-years-old or younger, adding even more emerging talent to one of the youngest squads in domestic cricket.

Cumming flexed his development by stepping into Super Smash this season and is now an all format batter for Otago. He only has one 50+ score in his last 10 games but Cumming has six 20+ scores and four 30+ scores in this period, while also averaged 55.7 in Plunket Shield this season. The lefty is one of the best pure openers on the rise in Aotearoa.

Jones started his domestic career with a century on Plunket Shield debut and then had a few low scores before departing for the U19 World Cup. New Zealand usually struggles at the U19WC and it's best viewed as a development exercise instead of a gauge of Aotearoa cricket, which is evident in Jones having four scores below 20 in that tournament and returning to Plunket Shield with a knock of 57 runs (against a typically solid Canterbury bowling attack).

The talent is obvious to see with Jones and it's also the case for O'Connor who is the most notable emerging lefty seamer in Aotearoa. Other seamers like Ben Lister or Ray Toole have quirky movement rather than the classical swing that O'Connor has and along with Mason Clarke (19yrs) and Toby Hart (22yrs), Otago's emerging crop of young seamers reflects the depth of all kiwi cricket.

Jacob Cumming - 22yrs

Plunket Shield: 390 runs @ 55.7avg/65sr, 1 x 100, 2 x 50
FC: 29.05avg/45.1sr, 1 x 100, 5 x 50

Tom Jones - 19yrs

Plunket Shield: 220 runs @ 27.5avg/73.3sr, 1 x 100, 1 x 50

Thomas O'Connor - 21yrs

Plunket Shield: 3w @ 12.6avg/4.3rpo
FC: 5w @ 26.4avg/2.5rpo

Nathan Smith's slow brew

After four consecutive games without a wicket and five consecutive innings without a 30+ score, Nathan Smith has found a groove. Here are his last four games for Wellington...

Ford Trophy vs Canterbury: 14 runs | 2w @ 4.5rpo
Ford Trophy vs Northern Districts: 64* @ 136sr | 1w @ 3.5rpo
Ford Trophy vs Central Districts: 1w @ 5.1rpo | 30 runs
Plunket Shield: 39 runs | 4w @ 3.5rpo | 62*

Smith was pretty good for Blackcaps last year as a reminder of his talent...

Test: 45 runs @ 45avg/32sr | 3w @ 19.6avg/2rpo
ODI: 34 runs @ 6.8avg/57sr | 17w @ 29.2avg/6.5rpo

There aren't many blokes who can automatically return to 1st 11 Blackcaps duties after injuries/absences. Smith is an example of this because others have stepped in and done their job for winning teams, so Smith needs to dominant the domestic level once again to fight off the contenders. The only way to do that is eating runs and wickets so watch out for Smith in these last few rounds of Plunket Shield.

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