Dawid Malan and Alex Hales flexed their muscles at the top of the order and helped Trent Rockets overcome the Northern Superchargers in The Hundred men’s 2022 on August 9. The Rockets sailed to a comfortable seven-wicket victory at Leeds, overhauling the Superchargers’ 152/8 with six balls left in the game.
The Rockets took a giant leap towards the winning post with an explosive opening stand of 86 runs in 53 deliveries, with Hales smashing 43 off 27 balls before his dismissal, including 4 fours and 2 sixes.
At the other end, Malan, too, dominated the opposition attack throughout his partnership with Hales and went on to produce a match-winning knock of 88 not out off 49 deliveries.
Dwayne Bravo (1/28) and Adil Rashid (1/29) bowled relatively tight spells but the Superchargers lacked a collective effort to put a leash on run-scoring against the Hales-Malan duo. Once the two England internationals got going, there was no stopping them.
The scene was completely different for Superchargers with the bat. They lost both their openers Adam Lyth and Faf du Plessis, without them opening their account. A number of their middle-order batters got in but failed to make any substantial score, leaving the team in major strife at 68 for 6 at one point.
It took counterattacking efforts from Roelof van der Merwe and David Wiese for Superchargers to recover and take their score past the 150-mark in the first half. The allround duo stitched a valiant stand of 83 runs for the seventh wicket, with VdM scoring 30 off 24 balls and Wiese going on to record a highly impressive 50 off 27 balls. Wiese’s impressive knock featured five maximums to close out his team’s innings.
Daniel Sams (3/31) was the pick of the bowlers for Rockets, who also had Luke Wood (2/30) and Luke Fletcher (2/22) among the wickets.
Brief scores
Northern Superchargers 152/8 in 100 balls (Wiese 50; van der Merwe 30; Sams 3/31) lost to Trent Rockets 155/3 in 94 balls (Malan 88*, Hales 43; Bravo 1/28) by 7 wickets
