Canterbury is the only undefeated team in Ford Trophy after Chad Bowes' crazy double hundy last week and despite the rain impacting two games on the weekend, Auckland had a win over Otago to snap up second spot on the ladder. Along with Bowes leading Canterbury to victory over Otago last Wednesday, Wellington won against Auckland and Northern Districts defeated Central Districts.

Wellington vs CD and Canterbury vs ND were rained off over the weekend. This leaves CD without a win and Otago had two losses in a row, making them the only team on 1-2. Wellington and Northern Districts are in the middle of the ladder with 1-1 records, behind Auckland (2-1) and then Canterbury.

Ford Trophy Stat Leaders

Batting

Chad Bowes: 253 runs @ 253avg/159sr
Michael Sclanders: 182 runs @ 60.6avg/85sr
Dale Phillips: 165 runs @ 55avg/81sr
Will O'Donnell: 160 runs @ 53avg/74sr
Brad Schmulian: 134 runs @ 44.6avg/116sr
Jack Boyle: 130 runs @ 43.3avg/88sr
Tom Bruce: 120 runs @ 60avg/140sr
Henry Cooper: 118 runs @ 59avg/97sr
Leo Carter: 118 runs @ 39.3avg/85sr
Luke Georgeson: 114 runs @ 38avg/105sr

Bowling

Matt Bacon: 10w @ 12avg/4.7rpo
Blair Tickner: 7w @ 17.8avg/6.5rpo
Angus McKenzie: 5w @ 6avg/2.3rpo
Zak Foulkes: 5w @ 7.4avg/3rpo
Danru Ferns: 5w @ 17.6avg/5.5rpo
Scott Kuggeleijn: 5w @ 22.6avg/5.9rpo
Andrew Hazeldine: 5w @ 33.4avg/5.5rpo
Michael Rippon: 4w @ 5.7avg/3.9rpo
Adithya Ashok: 4w @ 30.5avg/5.3rpo
Dean Foxcroft: 4w @ 35.7avg/6.6rpo

Bowes exploded with 205 runs @ 186sr last week in a knock that fits nicely into his last 10 games stretching back to last season...

Ford Trophy: 74, 42, 15, 4
Plunket Shield: 114, 0, 25, 5, 1, 87*, 26, 60
Ford Trophy: 48*, 205

There is a splash of class in how Bowes steered Canterbury to victory against Wellington in the first round, finishing on 48* @ 98sr as Canterbury chased down a target of 130. Then Bowes whacked 32 boundaries (27x4, 7x6) against Otago and after Matthew Boyle was the only Cantab to score runs alongside Bowes vs Wellington, Zak Foulkes was the main contributor along with Bowes to take Canterbury to 343/9.

Cole McConchie hit 27 runs @ 67sr and these three were the only lads to score 20+ runs in Canterbury's 300+ innings. Foulkes finished on 49* @ 106sr and with Bowes cruising on 253 runs @ 159sr to start the Ford Trophy, two youngsters in Boyle and Foulkes are the only other Canterbury batters who have scored 30+ runs so far.

Both Boyle and Foulkes finished not-out as well, plus they currently have strike-rates of 106. Foulkes is tied with Angus McKenzie on 5 wickets as Canterbury's best bowlers after he took 2w @ 2.6rpo against Otago, while Sean Davey (3w @ 3.8rpo) and Michael Rippon (3w @ 3.1rpo) led Canterbury for wickets in the win vs Otago.

Foulkes is part of two notable clusters in Aotearoa cricket as he is a highly talented young all-rounder and he was selected in the Blackcaps ODI/T20I squad to play in Sri Lanka. Every team has a young or emerging all-rounder who you need to know about and they all do slightly different things in the batting/seaming bracket. Here are their List-A career records...

Jock McKenzie: 22yrs | 18avg/71sr | 41.4avg/5.5rpo (Auckland)
Kristian Clarke: 23yrs | 10.7avg/68sr | 23.8avg/5.6rpo (ND)
Will Clark: 23yrs | 41.3avg/94sr | 34.2avg/6.6rpo (CD)
Nathan Smith: 26yrs | 26.4avg/94sr | 32.1avg/5.4pro (Wellington)
Zak Foulkes: 22yrs | 19.6avg/78sr | 19.6avg/4.4rpo (Canterbury)
Luke Georgeson: 25yrs | 35.9avg/77sr | 23.5avg/5.4rpo (Otago)

Foulkes is also one of the best performing emergers in the Blackcaps squad to tour Sri Lanka. We have only had a few games and these lads are all in different zones of form, but Foulkes and Wellington's Tim Robinson have served up nice mahi to start the season...

Josh Clarkson: 24 runs @ 12avg/68.5sr | 1w @ 106avg/6.6rpo
Tim Robinson: 72 runs @ 72avg/74.2sr
Nathan Smith: 27 runs @ 27avg/71sr | 1w @ 40avg/3.6rpo
Mitch Hay: 2 runs @ 1avg/22.2sr
Zak Foulkes: 49 runs @ 106.5sr | 5w @ 7.4avg/3rpo
Dean Foxcroft: 14 runs @ 4.6avg/50sr | 4w @ 35.7avg/6.6rpo

Here's a deep cut of Foxcroft's List-A batting prior to this season...

2018/19: 259 runs @ 51.8avg
2019/20: 406 runs @ 50.7avg
2022/23: 143 runs @ 17.8avg
2023/24: 174 runs @ 21.7avg

Robinson scored his second LA half-century and is building into being more than a T20 slugger...

First-Class: 22.5avg/53.7sr
List-A: 24avg/80.7sr
T20: 24.9avg/141.4sr

Auckland's win over Otago had a bunch of younger lads shining.

Otago put up 283/9 with Dale Phillips (72 runs @ 78sr) and Georgeson (40 runs @ 118sr) continuing their strong starts to the season, as well as Leo Carter's 62 runs @ 84sr. Phillips and Carter have two 50+ scores each in three games, while Georgeson hasn't bowled himself as Otago's skipper but he has smacked 114 runs @ 38avg/104.5sr so far.

Auckland had Danru Ferns taking 3w @ 7.3rpo as well as Adithya Ashok (2w @ 7.2rpo) and Michael Sclanders (2w @ 3.3rpo) chiming in. Sclanders then hit 107 runs @ 95sr alongside the younger McKenzie brother Jock hitting 66 runs @ 81sr as they did most of the winning mahi for Auckland.

Sclanders is the latest South African to move to Aotearoa, having played for KwaZulu-Natal Inland as recently as April 2022. After popping up for Auckland in Ford Trophy last summer, 24-year-old Sclanders has scores of 40, 35 and 107 to start this season to be second for Ford Trophy runs.

McKenzie has quickly settled into the group of young all-rounders and he hit his first LA score over 50, adding to a knock of 74 in FC batting. While he only has one 50+ score in FC cricket, McKenzie finished last summer with scores of 48, 39, 19 and 40 in the last two games. The McKenzie bowling package is enticing as he appears to operate with decent pace and nibble, but he hasn't snared wickets consistently yet.

Only two Auckland bowlers had churned out 20+ overs so far and they are the younger lads in McKenzie and Ashok. McKenzie (23ov) has 2w @ 72.5avg/6.3rpo, taking his wickets in one game and going wicket-less in the other two. Ashok has bowled one less delivery (22.5ov) than McKenzie and he has 4w @ 30.5avg/5.3rpo as he builds up his reps after battling injury last season.

The NZ Cricket announcement of the squad to tour Sri Lanka mentioned Ashok in the injured list, even though he has played all three Ford Trophy games so far. This translates to Ashok working his way back into a flow of consistent game time and that he is in the Blackcaps mix as the best young spinner.

Here's a break down of Ashok's career mahi and his LA season by season...

First-Class: 34.66avg/3.4rpo
List-A: 36.29avg/5.5rpo
T20: 22avg/7rpo
2021/22: 11w @ 38.72avg/5.8rpo
2022/23: 10w @ 27.1avg/5.3rpo
2023/24: 6w @ 51avg/5.3rpo
2024/25: 4w @ 30.5avg/5.3rpo

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