Round two of the State Championship gets underway tomorrow and the rampaging Canterbury side will be looking to put a significant performance together against Northern Districts to get their season off to the perfect start.

Both sides will suffer when the national side is chosen, and points gained at this early stage of the summer when the sides are at close to full strength could come in very handy further down the line.

But there are other reasons for Canterbury to want to do well.

All-rounder Chris Cairns goes into the match on 599 first-class wickets, Chris Harris will be playing his 100th first-class match and wicket-keeper Gareth Hopkins who is on 98 first-class dismissals.

More importantly though is the quality time available to players who are prospective Test candidates for the New Zealand team to be named at the weekend.

With that in mind Daryl Tuffey will be looking for a similar sort of return for Northern Districts that he had at the Village Green last year. That was the effort that saw him recalled to the Test team, with such outstanding effect in New Zealand's victory over England at Eden Park.

Should Ian Butler pass the fitness test he has to do before the match, it will be an important trial for him to show he is ready to be considered for Test play.

Daniel Vettori will be looking too, to get more overs under his belt, the more the merrier probably.

Equally, Chris Martin and Shane Bond will be wanting to have plenty of bowling too.

In many ways this game is perfectly placed coming as it does before the Test. Two strong teams doing battle on what is expected to be a good pitch at Rangiora, should make for a tight contest.

The other match of the round, between Auckland and Wellington at Eden Park's outer oval, should be an equally absorbing contest.

The home team's batting, especially the top order, will be well tested by the highly impressive Wellington attack which did so well against Central Districts in the first round.

Another good performance by left-armer James Franklin could make Test considerations very interesting while Mark Richardson, Lou Vincent and Matt Horne, all prospective Test batsmen will at least have the chance to work out against some top quality bowling.

Then there's the natural rivalry between these two sides to consider. It is shaping as one of the more intense rounds of the competition.

© CricInfo