Dawid Malan‘s unbeaten 49-ball 88 and an 86-run opening stand with Alex Hales set the stage for Trent Rockets’ seven-wicket win over Northern Superchargers in Leeds. Superchargers had recovered from a deflating 68 for 6, courtesy David Wiese’s 27-ball 50 as he pushed the side to 152 for 8 in 100 balls. But that proved insufficient in the end.
Asked to bat first, both openers Adam Lyth and Faf du Plessis fell for zero as the Rockets landed a heavy punch early. The middle-order’s attempt at recovery didn’t go as planned as Daniel Sams, Luke Wood and Luke Fletcher tore through the line-up. Superchargers fell to 68 for 6 before Wiese and Roelof van der Merwe came together for the innings-reviving seventh-wicket stand. Wiese smashed five sixes in his half-century while Van der Merwe supported him well in an 83-run alliance. Sams dismissed both of them but not before they carried Superchargers past the 150-run mark.
Rockets made the opposite start to the Superchargers, as Hales and Malan put on a big stand for the opening wicket. And they did it in quick time to put the chasing side on course. Adil Rashid and Ben Raine provided two quick breakthroughs to give the bowling side a glimmer of hope but Malan quickly ended that by carrying on to score briskly. His 49-ball effort included 11 fours and three sixes. The Rockets lost Colin Munro next, but by then they were within touching distance of victory. The eight runs they needed from the last 10 balls came in the form of two boundaries from Malan as he wrapped up the chase with six balls to spare.
Brief Scores: Northern Superchargers 152/8 in 100 balls (David Wiese 50, Roelof van der Merwe 30; Daniel Sams 3-31) lost to Trent Rockets155/3 in 94 balls (Dawid Malan 88*, Alex Hales 43; Dwayne Bravo 1-28) by 7 wickets.
