The Trent Rockets are still in the running for this year’s Hundred with two major games remaining thanks to yet another masterpiece in batting from Nat Sciver-Brunt and an outstanding opening burst from left-arm seamer Alexa Stonehouse.
However, the struggling Southern Brave, who have only won once during the competition, don’t appear to be about to let up.
With an undefeated score of sixty-seven off thirty-swallows, Sciver-Brunt, the England star’s eighth century, lifted the Rockets to a dominant 155 for seven and moved her above Danni Wyatt to become the tournament’s all-time top female run scorer. She is on the verge of being the first female player to surpass the 1000 run milestone with 933 tournament runs.
Grace Scrivens (36 from 24) provided her with great support at first, and later she received brief appearances from Ash Gardner and Heather Graham. The Rockets were only contained by Lauren Bell’s deadly bowling, which saw her take three wickets in her last set of five.
The Brave, in response, were always up against it as Stonehouse dismissed Wyatt and Maia Bouchier within the first five balls, the latter with a stunning inswinger that arced through the gate.
After 69 balls and fading, the Brave were 82 for 4 after Georgie Adams was feisty for her 27 before falling to a brilliant boundary throw from Katie George. Smriti Mandhana was all touch and grace for her 42 (27), but she miscued a Graham off-break to backward point.
Chloe Tryon delivered several fiery late-order hits that momentarily raised the possibility of an upset—one six was sent 86 meters into the groundstaff’s shed—but the Rockets retained their composure to win easily by 24 runs.
Match Hero MeerKat “Their batters put us under the pump and made us go through a few plans with the ball, but we found the right one in the end, and we held our nerve with our skill,” Nat Sciver-Brunt said, acknowledging that it was a team effort with contributions throughout.
“Grace Scrivens and I had a great connection; we had discussed the necessity for it after the first few games, so we were extremely happy with the outcome today.
“After the first four games we felt pretty down – three close games and not coming out on the right side of it, so it takes some getting up for the next game, but we’ve come back really strongly and with two games to go who knows what can happen.”
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