Northern Supercharges v Birmingham Phoenix The Hundred at Headingley August 15th

Neil Whitaker

NORTHERN Supercharges went to the top of the Men’s Hundred table after they beat Birmingham Phoenix by 36 runs in front of a crowd of 13,887 at Headingley. 

Put into bat the Supercharges made 193 for five in their 100 balls with Dawid Malan top scoring with 58.  He received support from his opening partner Zak Crawley who hit 45, captain Harry Brook who made an unbeaten 31 and Michael Pepper who scored  28.

Brook said: “I don’t care if we bat or bowl you’ve got to do both but if I’d won the toss we were going to have a bowl. We got a high score on a surface which could have made chasing tricky.  Headingley is a fast scoring ground where you can score boundaries without hitting the ball in the air.

Malan swept Liam Livingstone for a six over long-on to bring up the Supercharges 100.  He top edged a pull off  Chris Wood but the ball still went for a one bounce four over mid-wicket.   Malan wasn’t done there he swept Benny Howell to the mid-wicket boundary to bring up his 50 from 28 balls with six fours and one six.

He chipped Wood off his legs but found Tim Southee at short fine leg. His 58 came from 34 balls.  Next ball David  Miller was leg before to Wood after a review.

His opening partner Crawley had led the way by drilling Trent Boult early doors  to the long-off boundary.  He clipped Adam Milne off his legs over mid-wicket for another boundary.  To end Milne’s first set he hooked him over fine leg for a six.

 He drove Boult straight over log-on for another six and  hit the next three balls for three fours. With 50 on the horizon, if not better, his  innings ended when he went down the pitch to Livingstone’s first ball  and was easily stumped by Joe   Clarke.

Pepper had a swing at  Milne and got a bottom edge that took it to the fine leg boundary.  Then he thumped Southee to the long-off boundary and deftly scooped the next ball over stumper’s Clarke’s head to the boundary. He top edged the next ball but found Ben Duckett on the long-on boundary.

Brook scooped his first ball for a six as he fell over. Then he  pulled Milne to the square leg boundary. He top edged a sweep of Wood to square leg boundary and he smashed the next ball off his legs into the Western terrace for a big six.

Not to be outdone Dan  Lawrence pulled Wood for a flatter six into the Western terrace.  But he guided Boult  to Will Smeed  on the cover boundary.

Birmingham Phoenix lost their first wicket with only two on the board.  Smeed top edged a pull off Jacob Duffy and Matty  Potts took a good running catch with the ball coming over his right shoulder.

Duckett tried to swing Potts to leg, missed the ball and was hit on his pads.  After a review he was given out.

After driving Potts straight for a four Clarke bottom edged a pull of the next ball and went up in the air and Duffy at mid-on took a steapling catch.

Livingstone hit two consecutive sixes off Duffy: the first over mid-wicket the second was straight and on to the roof of the Howard stand.  He thumped Tom Lawes to mid-on boundary. After smashing Adil Rashid for a six over mid-wicket he went for  a straighter one with the next ball found Mitchell Santner in the long-off boundary.

Jacob Bethel gracefully guided Lawrence to the cover boundary. He smoothly pulled Santner over the  mid-wicket for and swept the next over square leg for another six.  The next one went a bit finer for another.  He blasted Lawes for another six this time over long-on.

He drilled  Rashid straight past the bowler for another boundary and  top edged a pull off Rashid who had to run to mid-on to take the catch.  With Livingstone they added 80 for the fourth wicket.  While they were together the Phoenix had a chance and as soon as they were parted it was a procession from and back to the hutch.

After Livingstone was dismissed the Phoenix lost for wickets for 20 runs in 16 balls. Phoenix head coach Dan Vettori said: “It was a very good performance by the Supercharges  they took the game away from us in their powerplay and we weren’t able to pull it back.  But Headingley is one of the few grounds that you can chase 194 on because the outfield is like lightning and at half time we were  confident of chasing it down. Our challenge was to out play Rashid and Santner.  But Rashid had another solid performance.

Our captain Livingstone kept up his form.”

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