Northern Brave is New Zealand’s men’s Super Smash champion once more — and the Canterbury Kings are the runner-up, yet again.
Two decades after they last won the trophy in the inaugural season of the men’s competition, the Kings’ title drought continues after top qualifier Brave clinched their Grand Final at Hagley Oval tonight by five wickets.
All images: PHOTOSPORT
The Kings have now been Super Smash’s beaten Grand Finalist for six consecutive years, an unenviable record they had hoped to cast aside on their home turf.
They were up against a team that dropped only one game this season (including a tie and three washouts) to earn the reputation as the team to beat.
Brave skipper Robbie O’Donnell’s decision to send in the Kings paid big, quick dividends, Zak Gibson opening with a statement wicket maiden.
His victim was Chad Bowes — fresh off a brilliant fifty the night before, and now gone for a duck, chopping on, third ball.
Scott Kuggeleijn then restricted Tom Latham and Henry Nicholls to single off his first over as Northern set the tone in the power play.
By the end of it the Kings were 46/2, having lost Nicholls along the way to a slick diving catch from keeper Ben Pomare, off Brett Hampton (3/37).
The strong allrounder would make his presence felt with ball and bat in the crunch match.
He removed Matt Boyle cheaply, then added the prized wicket of Latham (34 off 23) in the space of his next two overs.
In between, Tim Pringle had got the better of his spinning opponent Cole McConchie, the Kings captain skying a catch to Gibson who caught it on the juggle at 51/4.
Pringle would impress with his tidy 1/20.
Tim Pringle
Latham’s dismissal made it 57/5 and, in just the ninth over, the hosts’ hopes of a competitive total appeared to be melting fast.
Enter Leo Carter and Mitch Hay who did a good job of salvaging the back half of the Kings’ innings.
They got the team hundred on the board in 14 overs and carried onto an unbroken 114*-run stand: a new Kings T20 sixth-wicket record partnership against all teams, bettering Andrew Ellis and Brendon Diamanti's 2012/13 record by two runs.
Carter was the first to reach his fifty, off just 35 balls, as they attacked at the death. Hay’s came off 33 balls and 26 runs flew off the last over as the the pair got their side to a respectable 171/5.
Between them they had hit eight fours and four sixes — Latham and Nicholls the only other batters to have found the fence.
Northern’s top order showed how it was done. Hampton hammered three sixes within the first three overs as he and Katene Clarke galloped to a fast start.
In his first spell, Michael Rae was unlucky not to have a Hampton skier with the proverbial snow on it caught on 29.
It was Rae who finally enticed a wicket in his second spell, Katene Clarke caught behind for 33 after an 89-run first wicket stand.
Hampton had already cruised to his half ton, off just 23 balls — largely dealing in sixes. The Brave needed barely more than a run a ball, but Rae crucially struck again three balls later to stop the big hitter in his tracks on 55.
Now there was an opening, Joe Carter and skipper O’Donnell both fresh at the crease in the ninth over. Could the Kings recover from the power play carnage?
McConchie had introduced himself into the attack in the eighth and, although he had taken some early tap from Hampton, he reasserted himself with some crucial tight overs through the middle.
He trapped the opposing captain cheaply in the 12th, then Lachie Harper removed Xavier Bell, also for single figures, at the start of the following over.
It was one of those Finals in which batters on both sides toyed with the fielders, in the urgency for runs. Tight fielding was also now the order of the day, with Carter still there and Kuggeleijn a dangerous finisher.
With five overs to go, the Brave needed a tantalising 37 runs from 30 balls.
McConchie tried a surprise option, bowling part-time spinner Matt Boyle, but it only got the equation down to run-a-ball.
Running out of tricks, the writing was on the wall for the perpetual bridesmaids. Rae had one last laugh as he got Carter caught three balls shy of a fifty, but his 47 had come off just 28 balls and the Brave batted deep.
Ben Pomare and Kuggeleijn brought the trophy home with 2.1 overs to spare.
2026 Men’s Super Smash Grand Final
Hagley Oval, Christchurch
Saturday, 31 January 2026
Northern Brave (Q1) beat Canterbury Kings (Q3) by 5 wickets
Canterbury will now look to go again as all the men’s teams head back into the national one-day Ford Trophy competition — which Canterbury leads.
The back half of the competition resumes on Wednesday with Canterbury away to the Auckland Aces, the Central Stags away to the Wellington Firebirds, and Northern Districts away to the Otago Volts in Dunedin.
The Aces are sitting at second in The Ford Trophy and the Stags third, the top three teams at the end of 10 rounds to progress to Finals in Wellington in late February.
