Wellington went south to grab two wins vs Canterbury in Christchurch with the best Blazers joined by youngster Hannah Francis in serving up winning mahi and the Samuel Morgan/Oscar Jackson extravaganza keeps flowing for the Firebirds.
Northern Districts had two wins in Auckland and both Northern teams are tracking nicely ahead of Super Smash finals.
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.
While there have been many notable checkpoints to suggest that the Blackcaps will be alright after the previous generation started to dip out of the mix, the last few months have escalated a sense of calm about New Zealand cricket.
Super Smash takes a day off from the mayhem and that offers space to drop five funky things for the blokes and wahine.
Auckland Hearts and Canterbury Kings had wins at Hagley Oval in Christchurch with the usual supply of enticing cricket mahi from the young brigade.
Northern Districts steamrolled Canterbury in Hamilton with two young batters shining in Xavier Bell and Natasha Wakelin.
New Zealand's Blackcaps have snuck over to India to play three ODIs and while their is a distinct development flavour to the ODI group, it's also a fair reflection of the best one-day cricketers available.
While mainstream media hangs on every IPL auction as if it's relevant to kiwi cricket, Bevon Jacobs' dipped out of the IPL mixer at the same time as he flowed into career-best form across the formats and specifically T20 cricket.
Prior to the Northern Districts vs Southern Regions of Aotearoa game day at Bay Oval, there is a glorious vista of young kiwis performing at a high level in both Super Smash competitions.
The Alexandra chapter of Super Smash has finished with Otago winning three of their four games across the men's and women's competitions.
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.
The greatest T20 competition in the world starts on Boxing Day and as is the case every summer, the Super Smash will showcase New Zealand's best young cricketing talent.
The Blackcaps have wrapped up a Test series win vs West Indies after adding a Bay Oval victory to their win at the Basin Reserve and currently sit in their usual top-four spot on the World Test Championship ladder.
Plunket Shield takes a break over the festive period and after offering the five best Ford Trophy players from the first stanza, now it's time to dive into the best longform cricketers from the first four games.
Northern Districts, Otago and Wellington dominated the last HBJ Shield weekend series for the year with ND and Wellington perched at the top of the ladder.
Canterbury had a big win vs Auckland in a top of the table battle, Otago and Central Districts had a draw and Northern Districts were too slick for Wellington who went through the first stanza of Plunket Shield with four losses.
New Zealand has started the 2025/27 World Test Championship in their usual top-four spot after Blackcaps depth flourished for a Test win in Wellington vs West Indies.
All the home teams had a win in Plunket Shield's round three with Auckland winning in the big city, Central Districts winning in Napier and Northern Districts winning in Hamilton.
Auckland, Northern Districts and Central Districts have three wins from their first four games while Otago have four losses to start their season of HBJ Shield cricket.