Birmingham Phoenix Edges Trent Rockets in High-Scoring Hundred Clash

The Hundred men’s competition, Edgbaston

Birmingham Phoenix 214-4 (100 balls): Clarke 68 (33); Harrison 2-27

Trent Rockets 204-7 (100 balls): Banton 67 (32); Tariq 2-36

Birmingham Phoenix won by 10 runs

Birmingham Phoenix and Trent Rockets ended this year’s Hundred run-drought with a high-scoring contest at Edgbaston, as the home side edged the match by 10 runs.

Phoenix posted 214-4 — the second-highest total in tournament history, behind Oval Invincibles’ 226-4 from last year — and with the Rockets’ reply of 204-7, it marked the first time 400 runs were scored in a single match.

The 29 sixes hit across both innings set a new Hundred record.

Joe Clarke and Will Smeed both scored fifties during Phoenix’s flying start, as the pair added 104 runs from just 49 balls for the first wicket.

After Clarke’s dismissal for 68 off 33 balls and Smeed’s 51 from 28, Rehan Ahmed and Donovan Ferreira ensured the brilliant start was not in vain.

The pair smashed 63 runs from just 22 balls for the third wicket, as Ahmed struck five sixes in his 25-ball 48, while Ferreira added a valuable cameo of 22 not out from nine deliveries.

In reply, Rockets made a positive start as openers Finn Allen and Ben Duckett added 65 in 29 balls, but the chase began to drift when the pair fell for 43 and 49 respectively.

Tom Banton kept Rockets’ hopes alive with a 26-ball fifty, but seamer Scott Currie held his nerve at the death to remove him for 67, with an unlikely 29 needed off the last seven balls, as Phoenix closed out the victory.

On a difficult night for bowlers, Rockets spinner Calvin Harrison’s figures of 2-27 stood out as an outlier.

Phoenix’s innings was the sixth time a total of 200 or more was posted in the tournament, sparking much-needed life into this year’s edition after a stretch of relatively low scores — the previous highest total had been just 144.

The match also alleviated concerns about the pitch’s quality after Phoenix’s women were contrastingly bowled out for 64 earlier in the day.

Source link