Otago Sparks and Volts are the hottest Super Smash teams right now, while Jess Kerr is the most dominant women's player and Michael Bracewell is whacking boundaries. Let's start with Kerr and Bracewell...

Wellington Blaze are still second after their loss to Otago and join Sparks as the only Super Smash women's teams with three or more wins. Amelia Kerr hit 41 runs @ 95sr but it was Jess who led the Blaze mahi once again with 56 runs @ 112sr and she was the only Blaze bowler to take 2w (2.5rpo).

J-Kerr has three 50+ scores in her last four games and she has taken at least 2w in three of her last four games. Ahead of the Auckland vs Central Districts game day, she is the leading run-scorer in Super Smash and is ranked second for bowlers. A-Kerr is tracking along nicely as well and they are the only Wellington batters with 70+ runs, while Leigh Kasperek is only other Wellington bowler with 5+ wickets.

Kerr sisters in Super Smash

Jess Kerr

• Bat: 198 runs @ 66avg/129sr - 1st

• Ball: 9w @ 8avg/5rpo - 2nd

Amelia Kerr

• Bat: 149 runs @ 74avg/109sr - 4th

• Ball: 6w @ 12avg/4.7rpo - 11th

Wellington Firebirds are stuck at the bottom of the ladder with the same 1-3 record as Canterbury. Bracewell smacked 61 runs @ 197sr to give the Firebirds a chance of victory but it was a similar theme for both Wellington teams as the Kerr sisters were the only Blaze batters who scored 5+ runs and Bracewell was joined by Muhammad Abbas (22 runs @ 110sr) and Jesse Tashkoff (22 runs @ 96sr) as the only Firebirds who scored 10+ runs.

Bracewell is an intriguing joker to track as he is competing for a 1st 11 spot at the Champions Trophy, especially as he is in T20 mode right now and will probably play a similar role down the order for Blackcaps in ODIs. Bracewell hit 34* @ 106sr in the first ODI of the Sri Lanka tour and then hit 59 runs @ 179sr in the first T20I vs Sri Lanka of the series in New Zealand.

Add 8 wickets in his 27 overs across both formats of the Sri Lanka tour for a glimpse of what Bracewell can do in spinny conditions. Bracewell also took a 5-wicket-baggy in his Plunket Shield appearance between the away and home Sri Lanka series. Here are Bracewell's ODI/T20I stats...

• ODIs: 39.7avg/115sr | 37.5avg/5.2rpo

• T20Is: 18.5avg/129sr | 18.2avg/6.9rpo

After starting Super Smash with the festive phase in Alexandra, Otago has been on a three game road trip in which both the Sparks and Volts have won all three games...

• Canterbury in Christchurch: Sparks win by 15 runs, Volts win by 5 wickets

• CD in Palmerston North: Sparks win by 4 wickets, Volts win by 8 wickets

• Wellington in Wellington: Sparks win by 7 wickets, Volts win by 15 runs

Whether it's the joy and giggles of the Sparks, or the aggressive cricket played by Volts, both Otago teams have shown far more energy and enthusiasm than their opponents in these three games. This amplifies the feeling of Otago snatching the soul out of opposition teams and crowds in these away fixtures, which gets even funkier considering the quality of young talent that Sparks and Volts have performing at a high level.

In the Sparks win over Firebirds, seven bowlers were used and four of them took wickets. Bates (12rpo) was the only Sparks bowler who conceded more than 6.5rpo, highlighting the contritbutions from an entire bowling unit against the dynastic Blaze. Otago chased down their target with Olivia Gain and Caitlin Blakely steering them to victory.

The performances of Gain, Blakely and Emma Black have been especially enticing in these three road trip games...

vs Canterbury

• Olivia Gain: 48 runs @ 114sr

• Caitling Blakely: 43 runs @ 130sr

• Emma Black: 1w @ 5.2rpo

vs CD

• Emma Black: 3w @ 3.2rpo

• Olivia Gain: 9 runs @ 75sr

• Caitlin Blakely: 13 runs @ 54sr

vs Wellington

• Emma Black: 1w @ 5.5rpo

• Olivia Gain: 34 runs @ 79sr

• Caitlin Blakely: 52* @ 115sr

Blakely and Gain are the leading run-scorers for Otago, joined by Polly Inglis in scoring 100+ runs so far. Eden Carson is still the best bowler and she took 1w @ 5.5rpo vs Wellington, while the Sparks have four bowlers with 5+ wickets (Gordon, Black, Jensen).

The Volts have been battered and bruised, but inflict similar damage to the cricket ball. Dale Phillips has had an explosive few games and while he hasn't scored 50+ yet, Phillips started run-chases against Canterbury and CD by smashing boundaries. Otago batted first against Wellington and Phillips smashed more boundaries...

• vs Canterbury: 45 runs @ 160.7sr

• vs CD: 35 runs @ 318sr

• vs Wellington: 43 runs @ 172sr

Chu offered 37 runs @ 161sr and despite no other Volts batter passing 20 runs vs Wellington, there were five other lads who scored 10-20 runs to take them to 164/7. That's seven batters who scored 10+ runs and Otago then had five bowlers take wickets, led by Jacob Duffy who returned from Blackcaps duty with 3w @ 7.3rpo.

Otago has four bowlers with 8+ wickets, all four are averaging less than 20 and conceding less than 8rpo. One of the five Volts batters who has a strike-rate over 140 (20+ runs) is Ben Lockrose with 181sr and he's also in the group of bowlers with 8 wickets.

Lockrose is quietly brewing as one of the best emerging spin/sluggers in Aotearoa. He has a T20 batting record of 19.6avg/170sr, having almost hit as many T20 sixes as he has done fours (10 vs 15). With a T20 bowling record of 30.9avg/7.7rpo, Lockrose is in his best bowling campaign of Super Smash and it's his first season averaging below 30.

Andrew Hazeldine and Matt Bacon are really good T20 bowlers...

• Andrew Hazeldine: 26.6avg/8.1rpo

• Matt Bacon: 23avg/8.6rpo

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