Nat Sciver-Brunt cameo powers Trent Rockets to Hundred final

Trent Rockets confirmed a top-two spot and stretched their winning streak to six with a win over second-placed Southern Brave in the Women’s Hundred on Monday (August 10).

Rockets succumbed to 10/3, the lowest Powerplay score in Women’s Hundred history, but Ash Gardner first dug them out of the hole, and Nat Sciver-Brunt then put the finishing touches to take them over the line.

Finding company in Bess Heath, Gardner was compact with her strokeplay on the off-side, finding gaps that barely seemed to exist, and hit the lone six of the innings, a knock over deep mid-wicket off Charli Knott.

They had recovered to 63/4 and were still playing at under run-a-ball when top wicket-taker Tilly Corteen-Coleman bowled out Gardner. Sciver-Brunt, mysteriously absent at No.3, came as low as seven, but the demotion proved to be a masterstroke for a chase searching for impact.

She started with a reverse sweep for four and went on to score 26 off her first 10, hitting three fours in a row off Issy Wong because the pacer's slower ones just didn't land. The second of those was a brilliant slash over point that read the length well and punished the two additional free full-tosses.

Even though the finish was still evenly poised, Rockets had fulfilled the requirement for a top-two finish by that time.

Sciver-Brunt, on 31 off 18, was anticlimactically run out with one needed, trying to squeeze in an extra run. However, the task was already completed. She later said that moving to number seven was partly tactical so she could give the other batters more time and partly so she could rest her body.

In contrast to the Rockets, the Braves' innings earlier were top-loaded and steadily increased to 52/1 after the first 50 balls. Maia Bouchier, the opener, came on much later than Lizelle Lee did, punching five fours as the early aggressor.

But even as Bouchier and Laura Wolvaardt laid a firm base, there was a paucity of boundaries that would hurt them later. Georgia Adams got two in two, first trapping Bouchier as a reverse-sweep did not click and then cleaned up Jodie Grewcock with an arm-ball. Five balls later, Samantha Bates castled Phoebe Franklin. From 99/2, Brave had slipped to 102/5.

A couple of boundaries from Knott took them to 117, but it wasn’t enough against the table-toppers. Rockets had sufficient depth to return home despite their dramatic top-order collapse.