Let us take a look at the highlights of Matches 14 and 15 of the inaugural edition of Men’s Hundred that took place on 1 August.
Birmingham Phoenix v Trent Rockets, Edgbaston
Trent Rockets 144/6 in 100 balls (Malan 51, Milne 2-13) lost to Birmingham Phoenix 145/4 in 74 balls (Allen 43; Rashid 3-26) beat by 6 wickets with 26 balls to spare. Player of the Match: Will Smeed.
Will Smeed’s fiery 13-ball 36 helped Birmingham Phoenix to end Trent Rockets’ 100 percent winning record in the Men's Hundred at Edgbaston.
Batting first, Rockets posted 144/6, Dawid Malan top-scoring with 51. Malan was ably supported by Samit Patel (31 runs off 19 balls) and Alex Hales (38 off 22). Adam Milne again produced excellent figures of 2-13 after bowling 20 balls.
Coming to chase, Smeed and Finn Allen got Phoenix off to a blistering start, adding 60 inside the Powerplay. Liam Livingstone (23 off 12) and Moeen Ali (26 off 17) then joined the party as Phoenix reached the target with 26 balls to spare. Despite that, Rashid Khan returned impressive figures of 3-26.
London Spirit v Southern Brave, Lord’s
Southern Brave 145/6 in 100 balls (Davies 50; Cullen 2-27) beat London Spirit 141/7 in 100 balls (Inglis 55; Garton 2-30) by 4 runs. Player of the Match: Chris Jordan.
An outstanding spell of death bowling from Chris Jordan (2-32) and Tymal Mills (1-15) handed London Spirit their third defeat in three completed games, in Match 15 of the Men’s Hundred against Southern Brave, at Lord’s.
Chasing 146, Adam Rossington's 21-ball 45 and Josh Inglis’ 55 kept Spirit on the front foot. They needed 18 in 15 balls to win the contest, with six wickets in hand.
Then Jordan came to bowl his third set of five balls. He got Inglis with his first, thanks to an excellent diving catch from Quinton de Kock. Spirit lost their control after that, and they closed on 141/7.
Earlier, Alex Davies had top-scored with a 40-ball 50 to help Brave reach 145/6 after Eoin Morgan won the toss and asked them to bat. Blake Cullen was the pick of the Spirit bowlers, with 2-27.