The Hundred Men’s 2022, Match 11 and 12 Review: Trent Rockets and Birmingham Phoenix come on top against Manchester Originals and Welsh Fire

Trent Rockets and Birmingham Phoenix won their respective group stage matches against Manchester Originals and Welsh Fire in a doubleheader of The Hundred men’s competition 2022 on August 13 (Saturday). While the Rockets’ win was convincing, the Phoenix managed to win the encounter by just four runs.

Talking about the first match, the Originals batted first and posted a huge total of 189 runs in their allotted 100 deliveries with batters Jos Butler (41 runs), Philip Salt (70* runs), Tristan Stubbs (27 runs), and Laurie Evans (26* runs) providing heavy contributions to their team.

For the Rockets, Samit Patel and Tabraiz Shamsi were the only successful bowlers. Chasing 190 to win, Trent Rockets gave an excellent reply with the bat. Openers Alex Hales and Dawid Malan came out all guns blazing as they took on every bowler in the Originals’ b0wling line-up.

Even after Hales got out for 38 runs, the flow of runs did not stop as his partner was smashing the cricket ball all around the park. Malan was joined by Tom Kohler-Cadmore and he also played a vital knock of 30 runs in just 17 balls. However, the Player of the Match award was given to Malan who played an excellent unbeaten knock of 98 runs in just 44 balls smashing three fours and nine maximums.

Birmingham Phoenix beat Welsh Fire in a close match

In the second match of the day, Birmingham Phoenix batted first and a combined batting effort from Chris Benjamin, Matthew Wade, Benny Howell and Tom Helm meant that the batting team finished on 130/7 in their allotted 100 deliveries. Pacer David Payne was excellent with the ball in hand as he scalped two crucial wickets for his team.

Chasing 131 to win, Welsh Fire had a poor start with their star opener Joe Clarke getting out early, but healthy contributions from Tom Banton and Sam Hain meant that the chasing team was always in the contest.

However, as soon as both batters got out, the rest of the Welsh Fire batters were not able to score runs at a brisk pace. Apart from David Miller, who scored an unbeaten 35 runs off 30 balls, the rest of the middle and lower-middle order batting line-up struggled to score runs. Pacer Tom Helm held his nerves in the final over of the match as his team went on to win the match by four runs.