Trent Rockets bag maiden Women's Hundred title

Trent Rockets lived up to their billing as title favourites by demolishing Sunrisers Leeds in the Women's Hundred final at Lord's on Sunday (August 16). After winning seven of their eight league matches, the Rockets put on a show in the championship match, bundling out their opponents for just 91 runs before easily chasing it down with 46 balls left to win the title for the first time.

When Phoebe Litchfield smashed Samantha Bates for four and six at the beginning of her innings, it appeared as though Sunrisers were off to a good start in the final. But Byrony Smith and Lauren Winfield-Hill were dismissed off successive deliveries by Kim Garth and Litchfield didn't last long either as the defending champions were reduced to 24/3 in the final. Annabel Sutherland and Deepti Sharma then stemmed the rot and built a decent stand to revive Sunrisers with a crucial 32-run partnership.

However, once Deepti got castled, the floodgates opened again and this time there was no recovery in sight. Four balls after the Indian allrounder's departure, Georgia Adams bagged the big wicket of Sutherland who advanced down the ground and missed the ball completely, only to get stumped. To make matters worse, Jess Jonassen got run out for a duck three deliveries later. The procession just continued as Samantha Bates also opened her account on the big day. Danielle Gibson did her bit to push the score towards the three-figure mark by finding the boundary on four occasions but the Rockets continued to make inroads, eventually bowling out the opposition for just 91.

In contrast, the Rockets' openers got off to a terrific start to put the game to bed early. Sophia Dunkley hammered one from Kate Cross over the deep midwicket fence before nailing the slog sweep against Jonassen for the same result. Beth Mooney then got going with back-to-back boundaries off Cassidy McCarthy. The two batters then fetched a boundary each off Cross and in a matter of 25 deliveries, almost half the target was wiped out.

Mooney cut one past backward point to bring up the half-century stand, and the leg spin of Hannah Baker, the Eliminator player of the match, did not help either. Three balls later, it was Dunkley's turn to hammer the same bowler over covers just before the timeout. Gibson then introduced herself into the attack to finally break the partnership but by that time, 69 runs were erased from the target. While the Rockets also lost Nat Sciver-Brunt immediately, Mooney and Ashleigh Gardner got the job done with ease.