London: Trent Rockets clinched their first ever The Hundred title by defeating Manchester Originals in a thrilling final encounter. Earlier in the day, Oval Invincibles defeated Southern Brave to claim the Women’s counterpart for a successive second time.
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After winning the toss, Manchester Originals decided to bat first. The Originals had a poor start losing captain Laurie Evans in just thirteen balls. Evans was followed by exit of one-down Wayne Madsen at the 18th ball and fellow opener Salt at 22nd ball. Tristian Stubbs and Ashton Tuner tried to steer the ship but went down in vain as Originals lost two wickets at 57 runs. Ashton Turner was the biggest scorer for the Originals with 26 runs from 13 balls. Originals batted their entire innings, scoring 120 runs from 100 balls with one wicket left.
Rockets in retaliation however didn’t better any better than Invincibles. Dawid Malan and Alex Hales put the wicket flow on a hold. They lost just a wicket in the powerplay. Dawid Malan scored the highest for Trent Rockets at 19 runs in 18 balls. Rockets wasn’t powerpacked but played strategically to their maiden trophy.
At the last five balls, rockets required 11 to win the match. Richard Gleeson came in to bowl and the match seemed to be in Originals’ territory. On the very first ball of the last over, Rockets captain Lewis Gregory sailed the ball into the stands for a six. Gregory continued the momentum with a four thereby reducing the required to 1 from 3. With two balls to spare, Rockets came on top winning the cup for the first time.
Sam Cook who clinched four wickets in the first innings became the Man of the Match. Dawid Malan claimed the highest run scorer with 377 runs from 226 balls. On other hand, Originals’ Phil Walter powered to become the highest wicket taker along with Tom Helm and Jordan Thompson. Walter claimed 14 dismissals in 135 balls.
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