Phil Salt (55), Laurie Evans (45) and Tristan Stubbs (46) anchored an historic innings by the Manchester Originals to carry them to an impressive victory over Northern Superchargers and third consecutive win in The Hundred
Wednesday 24 August 2022 09:50, UK
The Manchester Originals posted a record total of 208 against the Northern Superchargers in The Hundred to take victory in a thriller at Headingley.
Phil Salt scored 55 off 25 balls, including five sixes, and both Laurie Evans (45) and Tristan Stubbs (46) came close to half-centuries as the Originals smashed the ball around the ground in an historic first innings.
The Superchargers made a good go of the run chase with Adam Lyth's 46 and Adam Hose's 59 giving them a chance but the target was just too high to chase down despite a spirited effort.
In the end they fell short by 23 runs after the bowling of Paul Walter, who took three wickets, helped to slow their chase.
The Originals have now won three games in succession and find themselves well in the hunt for one of the playoff positions.
Salt and Evans mounted a blistering opening attack, scoring 94 off the first 35 deliveries, including seven sixes and nine fours as they obliterated the Superchargers' bowlers.
The home side clawed their way back into contention after the opening blitz, but Tristan Stubbs and Paul Walter saw the Originals to only the competition's second total of 200 or more with 16 maximums, taking their side past the record number of sixes hit in an innings with ease.
The Superchargers could not match the demolition job of the Originals' batters and, despite Adam Hose's best efforts in scoring 59 off 27, he could only lift his side to a total of 185 for seven.
In a new-look opening partnership in the absence of captain Jos Buttler, who sustained a calf injury last time out, Salt and Evans set about causing mayhem from the off. Salt climbed into David Willey, hitting him for two boundaries in the first set.
After Salt was dropped by Dwayne Bravo on 15, a difficult high chance that just slipped through his hands near the boundary edge, Evans punished the all-rounder by hitting him for four consecutive boundaries and finishing with a six into the crowd over deep midwicket.
With the Superchargers' bowling attack rapidly falling apart after Salt bludgeoned Adil Rashid for three consecutive sixes, captain Faf du Plessis called an early time-out to attempt to regain control.
The tactic worked, with first Evans holing out to Harry Brook at long-on for 45 off Bravo, then Salt caught out in the same area off David Wiese for 55, Brook taking a superb catch diving forwards full length.
A period of calm followed for the Superchargers, with Rashid finding his rhythm to limit the flow of boundaries, Andre Russell in particular finding it hard to score.
The momentum switched once again when Stubbs decided to tee-off, scything boundaries off first Craig Miles and then Wiese, the latter picking up the most expensive bowling figures in the competition's history with 53 coming off his 20.
After Stubbs was caught from a Bravo slower-ball for 46 off 23, Walter's 26-run cameo finished the innings for the Originals and left the Superchargers with a monstrous chase of 209.
Despite Adam Lyth getting the innings off to a good start, repaying Stubbs for some of the treatment he dished out while batting by hitting him for a boundary in the first set, the chase rapidly lost momentum for the Superchargers, who themselves had posted 200 for five in winning last year's fixture here.
Lyth whacked two sixes and five fours in his 46 off 24 but could not repeat the feats of the openers earlier in the day. When Walter picked up two wickets in two balls, first Lyth caught at mid-off and then Brook first ball caught at deep backward square, the result looked a near formality.
Late thrills from Hose, who scored a boundary-fuelled 23-ball fifty, and sixes from Wiese kept the crowd cheering late into the evening, but in reality the Superchargers were always going to fall short.
The result ends their eliminator hopes, with the Originals still in contention.
Phil Salt said: "We know coming here, it's a good wicket. I made the move up to the north group just this year, so I found out how good a wicket it really is for white ball cricket. It's key to get a good start up here and we did that and Laurie (Evans) played really well.
"Obviously, at Old Trafford, Superchargers got one up on us. So it's key to come here and sort of balance that back out again. We're peaking at the right time, playing good cricket, we've got nothing to lose, as we say, so long may that continue."
Stand-in captain Laurie Evans: "It's nice to get over the line there at the end but I thought it was an excellent game of cricket, a great pitch exactly what The Hundred was made for, the crowd added something extra as well so it's great to get the win at the end there.
"Salty's obviously done it all his life, I was filling some fairly big shoes in Jos (Buttler's) and yeah, we just knew it was a good weekend we knew we needed to get off to a flying start. The stats do say that you bat first and win the game more often than not so it was great to get going and then the way the boys finished the way through the innings was just outstanding, world class.
"I think it was that good a wicket, we just needed as many as we could get and just keep going hard, keep going hard and exactly what this game was was built for. Anytime you get 200 in 100 or T20 you're in the game and you've just got to bowl well but I thought they played exceptionally well and we did well to close out."
The Hundred heads to Cardiff on Monday as Welsh Fire host Southern Brave in both the men's and women's competitions, with the games live on Sky Sports The Hundred, Sky Sports Mix and for FREE on skysports.com, the Sky Sports App and the Sky Sports Cricket YouTube channel.
The women kick things off (2.30pm on air ahead of a 3pm start) with Fire looking for their first win of the campaign after starting the season with successive losses to Birmingham Phoenix and Originals.
Watch every match from The Hundred this summer live on Sky Sports.
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