THE HUNDRED MENS COMPETITION 2025
Willey wrecked the Manchester Originals top order. © Getty
David Willey led from the front for the Trent Rockets in a comprehensive seven-wicket victory in Nottingham on Tuesday (August 19). The skipper picked up a three-fer in a miserly spell (3 for 11) to restrict the Manchester Originals to a meagre 98. The Rockets comfortably knocked off the total with 26 balls to spare to take them to second in the table.
Willey struck in the opening set of the game trapping young Ben McKinney LBW. It brought the Originals in-form batters to the crease – Phil Salt and Jos Buttler. The latter began to look fluent with three quick boundaries but a wild swing against the craft of Willey saw him nick behind. Willey followed it with a peach to Rachin Ravindra to bag him for a golden duck.
George Linde kept the brakes on the scoring for the Rockets as Salt and Heinrich Klaasen couldn’t find any timing. Their struggles came to an end at the hand of Rehan Ahmed who lured the batters into big shots, but merely nestled in the hands of the boundary riders. Sam Cook scalped Matthew Hurst and Scott Currie while Marcus Stoinis found himself in the wickets column with the wicket of Noor Ahmad.
Amidst the regular fall of wickets, Lewis Gregory was the only batter to put up a fight. Despite starting slowly, he accelerated in the last ten balls of the innings with a brace of fours and sixes. He scored 26 runs off his own bat in this phase to take the Originals close to 100.
Despite it being a tough surface to bat on, it wasn’t a 98 for 8 pitch which the Originals soon found out. Tom Banton scored a flurry of boundaries but he was given LBW to Ravindra in the fourth set. Just before this, Joe Root too fell for 4, giving the Originals a glimmer of hope. But Rehan (45*) showed his class with the bat. He slapped Josh Tongue for consecutive boundaries and found particular success against the spin duo of Ravindra and Noor, trusting himself with the slog-sweep and the back-and-across flat batted shot off the shorter deliveries. He was well partnered by Tom Moores who scored a brisk 22 off 13 to condemn the Originals to their fourth defeat in six games.
Brief Scores: Manchester Originals 98/8 in 100 balls (Lewis Gregory 33*, Jos Buttler 19; David Willey 3-11, Rehan Ahmed 2-14) lost to Trent Rockets 101/3 in 74 balls (Rehan Ahmed 45*, Tom Moores 22*; Sonny Baker 1-11, Josh Tongue 1-20) by 7 wickets
© Cricbuzz
