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.
By the time Tilly Corteen-Coleman, top of the wickets charts, dismissed Gardner, they had recovered to 63/4 but were still operating at under run-a-ball.
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.
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.
Starting off with a reverse-sweep for four, she raced to 26 off her first 10, crunching three fours in a row off Issy Wong, as the pacer’s slower ones just did not land.
The second of those was a brilliant slash over point, reading the length brilliantly, and punishing the two other full-tosses that came as freebies.
By that time, Rockets had ticked off the requirement for a top-two spot, even if the finish was still evenly poised.
She later confirmed her move to seven was partly tactical, giving the other batters some more time, and partly a way to rest her body.
Earlier, Brave’s innings was top loaded unlike the Rockets, steadily building up to 52/1 after the first 50 balls.
But even as Bouchier and Laura Wolvaardt laid a firm base, there was a paucity of boundaries that would hurt them later.
A couple of boundaries from Knott took them to 117, but it wasn’t enough against the table-toppers.
Brief scores: Southern Brave Women 117/5 in 100 balls (Maia Bouchier 38, Lizelle Lee 31; Georgia Adams 2-14, Georgia Elwiss 1-15) lost to Trent Rockets Women 118/7 in 98 balls (Ash Gardner 37, Nat Sciver-Brunt 32; Tilly Corteen-Coleman 2-16, Sarah Glenn 1-19) by three wickets.
