Twitter Reactions: John Simpson’s carnage keeps Northern Superchargers in contention for playoff berth

The Northern Superchargers have managed to keep their hopes alive of making it to the playoffs in the Men’s Hundred. On Thursday, the David Willey-led team defeated Manchester Originals by 69 runs. In the meantime, the defeat has knocked the Originals out of the competition.

Simpson leads the Superchargers

After being put in to bat first, the Superchargers got off to a flying start. Although they lost three wickets, they had scored 55 runs off 34 balls. Thereafter, Dane Vilas and Jordan Thompson stitched together a 51-run stand for the fourth wicket off 31 balls to carry the momentum.

However, the impetus came from John Simpson, who helped his team rack up 200 on the board. Simpson smashed his way to a 21-ball half-century and hammered an unbeaten 28-ball 71 with 11 fours and two sixes. For the Superchargers, Steven Finn went for 51 runs off 15 balls.

Originals crumble

In their run-chase, the Originals lost wickets at pretty regular intervals. Phil Salt and Joe Clarke built a 31-run stand for the opening wicket, but both of them perished in a space of three balls. Colin Ackermann and Colin Munro couldn’t find their mojo as they got out for seven each.

Skipper Carlos Brathwaite smashed three sixes on his way to a 14-ball 21, but his knock went in vain. For the Superchargers, Ben Raine was the most successful, having picked up three wickets. Adil Rashid and Willey returned with a couple of wickets as well under pressure.

After the Originals’ loss, Brathwaite said that dropping catches and conceding boundaries didn’t help their cause. Willey, on the other hand, was ecstatic. He also lauded Simpson for playing the match-winning hand.

John Simpson was fantastic: David Willey

“It was a bad performance overall, we did create chances early on, but we dropped catches and then conceded boundaries as well. These things can happen; we are human, we couldn’t handle the crowd pressure and the noise; we fumbled after creating chances. Chasing 200 off 100 balls, 99 times out of 100, you’ll go on to lose,” Brathwaite was quoted as saying.

“He (John Simpson) was fantastic, the way he played his shots was superb, he showed that he can play any type of game. Every game is a must-win for us; we have played some good cricket so far, without having the results to show for it. At the halfway stage, we just needed to bowl with the basics,” Willey added.

Here’s how the netizens reacted to Manchester Originals’ win: