England outcast Alex Hales smashes 40 not out and Ben Stokes and Joe Root fail to fire as Trent Rockets thrillingly chase down the Northern Superchargers with late charge
- Before the match Trent Rockets’ Root said his friendship with Northern Superchargers captain and his England team-mate Stokes would be ‘put aside’
- John Simpson (42) and Harry Brook (38) hit solid runs for the Superchargers
- Spinners Rashid Khan (31-3) and Matt Carter (2-17) shone for the Trent Rockets
- Hales hit a relatively measured 40 off 34 deliveries to anchor Rockets innings
- Superchargers were big favourites but the Rockets roared back into the game
Alex Hales thrashed Trent Rockets to a controversial victory in the Hundred last night – launching a late victory bid after a pitch invader changed the course of the contest.
Hales had struggled to 16 off 25 balls on another tired surface when he struck a single off Adil Rashid to relinquish the strike and reduce the equation for victory to 41 off 23.
However, the presence of an intruder on the field led umpires Russell Warren and Tim Robinson to call dead ball and return Hales to the striker’s end – even though he didn’t appear to be in the batsman’s eyeline when the ball was struck.
Trent Rockets opener Alex Hales hit a six to secure a win against the Northern Superchargers
The momentum shifted when Ben Stokes dropped a catching chance over the rope for a six
The ex-England batsman then launched the next one to long off, where Ben Stokes somehow allowed the ball to squirm through his hands for six – and the momentum was altered in a flash.
With just three wickets standing, the win predictor – one of the tournament’s on-screen gimmicks – had the chance of a home win as low as two per cent.
Suddenly, however, Hales was transformed and even the loss of Luke Wood soon afterwards failed to stymy his charge for the finish line.
Adil Rashid had helped the Superchargers stifle the Rockets, taking the wicket of Joe Root
With 23 required off 11, Stokes sent down a leg-side wide and was then punished when Hales powered a slower ball over the rope at wide long-on.
When number 10 Matt Carter then gave the same treatment to David Willey at the other end, the 12,500 crowd – the same as Nottinghamshire average for Twenty20 Blast matches – was bouncing.
A match, played on a used pitch and dominated by spin, did not make it into its final set of five deliveries as Hales smashed another six off Willey to settle things.
But Hales hit a six on a free hit after a David Willey no-ball to win the game for the hosting side
Stokes, in his final appearance of the tournament before linking up with England’s Test side that faces India on the same ground next week, won the toss.
He was looking to emulate the achievement of the Superchargers’ women earlier in the day in posting a total and successfully defending it.
That looked like being the case when the Rockets slipped to 58 for six, chasing 133 but Rashid Khan’s counter-attacking 25 provided hope and Hales took advantage of his life to finish on 40 from 34 balls.