Finn Allen, perfect and imperfect all at once

Finn Allen hits the ball like an epiphany at 4 in the morning. So very hard.

His strike rate at the end of his first full T20 season (2020-21) was 193.93. Even now, having added 86 matches to those initial 11, it's up at 167.78.

Allen and others like him can play like this only because they make a conscious effort to devalue their wicket. Their job, instead, is to make the most of every ball that comes at them. He was at the crease for a mere four overs in the opening match of the 2022 T20 World Cup and it was enough to derail the defending champions. Australia's net run rate took such a big beating that the captain Aaron Finch admitted "their fate was out of their hands."

Days like those, however, come at a price.

Allen has made only six scores of 30 or more for New Zealand in 26 innings since then. He also missed out on a place in the ODI World Cup. "It's obviously tough," he told ESPNcricinfo in September. "It's something you work towards for a long time and to get that news was obviously a little bit devastating. But you just get on with it."

Looking for the most runs off every single ball became Allen's instinct and instinct is hard to curb. It's like trying not to laugh at a good joke. Before you know it, you've already done it. This is why all-format excellence is rare. You have to be three different people in one, like AB de Villiers was or Jasprit Bumrah is. Allen's idol probably fits in that bracket as well.

"I definitely looked up to Kevin Pietersen. The way it kind of started was, I moved to Wellington and I guess they just wanted me to go out there and express myself in the T20 competition and I had never really done anything like that before so I guess I surprised myself a little bit. Now its just about developing that and as I said trying to be more consistent at that for longer."

That will invariably involve restraint. But how much? Allen is desperate for higher honours. "For sure, you have your setbacks. People have had far tougher roads in their career so who knows. It's almost fuel to the fire, you know [every time you aren't picked in the team]. You take time to process it. Grieve a little bit and yeah, we've got a big summer coming up and hopefully I can still make some strides."

But he does not want to lose his X-factor. He is actually prepared to risk everything for it. "Something I'm working on at the moment is around consistency in my game. Trying to figure out my method to be consistent but still strike at a high strike rate, I guess. You have to be okay with failure at times and you have to I guess be thick-skinned in a way because there's going to be peaks and troughs along the way. The highs are going to be really high and the lows can be really low.

"At the end of the day, we're entertainers, right? We're here to put a show on for the crowd and get their money's worth and that's the way I want to play my cricket."

In some ways, Allen came to internationals too soon. The allure of him smashing fast bowlers at the lower levels, where he seemed proficient on both sides of the wicket and against any length on offer, was too great. New Zealand had to try him out but once he was there, he realised he had a pretty decent plan A but no real fallback; or at least none that worked the way he wanted.

"It's been interesting. Obviously, played a bit of List A cricket back home, figuring out my method there and then trying to replicate that on the international stage is obviously challenging."

Take just the powerplay. Allen dominates it in T20Is, because success here is measured in strike rate and since his debut, only Nicholas Pooran (160.52) has a better one than his 153.86 (min 20 innings). In ODIs, though, a batter's worth is measured in the weight of runs he makes and the way it shapes the team's fortunes. For that, he has to spend time at the crease. Allen has played 21 innings in ODIs so far and in 13 of them he has not been able to survive the powerplay.

"I've found it a lot tougher in ODI cricket," he said. "Bowlers bowl a bit more attackingly. If they get hurt early on, they can still come at you aggressively because they've got time later in the game to pull their figures back and pull it back in the team. So I guess it's been more of a challenge of my method if anything. The mental challenge around sticking at it for longer and being able to stick to your processes for longer."

Allen's entire New Zealand career - two years, nine months and five days on Christmas - has been about finding a tempo that satisfied both the game and himself. He is still searching for that balance, but once again there have been some good signs at the domestic level.

Last month, in his first-ever appearance for his hometown team, Auckland, he very nearly broke their record for the highest 50-over score (174 by Colin Munro) and he did it in a match where only two others, having faced more than 10 deliveries, could keep a strike rate above 80. Eight days later, he raised another century. A career tally that was only 1421 when this season's Ford Trophy began is already up at 1808 - a 30% increase. And here's the cherry on top: the last three months of 2023 witnessed three of his five longest innings across formats.

Say it softly but Finn Allen is hitting the ball like good coffee on a bad morning. Just the right kind of hard.