Joe McConnell
Trent Rockets won a tight and tough match against Birmingham Phoenix at The Hundred at Edgbaston.
The Rockets levelled the points with third-placed Northern Superchargers and confirmed their place in the knockout stages, winning by three wickets with just three balls left on the field in a tense match.
Birmingham Phoenix won the toss and elected to bat, with both teams sitting on six points in the table and looking for an opportunity to keep their seasons alive. Phoenix were without Sophie Devine, forced to miss out through injury.
This prompted a change of batting order for Phoenix, but their batting order didn’t last long: three wickets fell early for the home team, who lost captain Ellyse Perry, Fran Wilson and Amy Jones in the first 15 balls, before they had even reached double figures.
Alexa Stonehouse took Perry’s all-important wicket, with Sciver-Brunt dismissing her former housemate Wilson and her “bridesmaid” Jones at first over.
Phoenix’s recovery was as impressive as it was crucial, with Sterre Kalis and India international Richa Ghosh posting 95 for the record fourth-wicket partnership of the women’s Hundred. Ghosh made 41 from 36 and Kalis 47 from 44 to lift the hosts to a score of 112-6, a result to be reckoned with.
After her first wickets, Sciver-Brunt finished with a score of 2-16. Australian international spinner Ash Gardner also picked up a couple of crucial wickets in the dying minutes to take her figures to 2-17.
Phoenix needed early wickets to help defend their below-par total and they did so, with Bryony Smith and Nat Wraith dismissed in the first 20 balls.
Unfortunately for Phoenix, that brought in Sciver-Brunt, the leading point scorer in this year’s The Hundred and the record holder for the highest overall score in the women’s competition.
With Sciver-Brunt and Gardner in goal, the visitors looked to be chasing, but a flurry of ill-timed wickets between the 70th and 80th balls, including a timely run from Perry, suddenly made things much more difficult for the Rockets.
It wasn’t the first time the Rockets had to fight to cross the finish line, but this time it was a match that had to be won at all costs.
They may have benefited from a questionable no-ball call, which saw Josie Groves pardoned after initially being declared out, but on this occasion they had enough in their possession to get over the line: Katie George was there at the end alongside Groves to keep alive the Rockets’ hopes of going further in The Hundred.
Player of the Match – Nat Sciver-Brunt
“I was very happy with the way the ball came out. I’ve probably not had that much success or that much consistency, so I was very happy with my personal bowling performance.
“We were pretty happy with what we had restricted them to. They got some sort of partnership, but when we got the first wickets, we knew they would get a partnership sooner or later. We made sure we didn’t get too far ahead or panic and the players ultimately stayed calm.
“In terms of chasing, we probably got a little bit ahead and gave ourselves a little bit of relief towards the end so the pressure didn’t build up too much. For the two batsmen who got out at the end, who hadn’t faced a lot of balls, they were very brave and I was really pleased that they did their job.
“We’ve had so many close games, so to come out on the right side of it this time is really nice. It’s still all in our hands, if we beat Oval Invincibles in our last game then we’ll be in the top three.”
What will happen now?
The Hundred continues on Tuesday 13th August with another double header between Supercharger of the North AND Spirit of London.
The women’s match will be available to watch on Vscek Main Event and Vscek Cricket from 2.30pm, the first match at 3pm and the men’s match on Vscek Cricket from 6pm.
Vscek+ has officially launched and will be integrated into Sky TV, the NOW streaming service and the Vscek app, giving Vscek customers access to over 50 percent more live sport this year at no extra cost. Find out more here.
