Trent Rockets have booked their spot in the knockout stage of the Hundred men’s tournament after recording a six-wicket victory against MI London at The Oval.
Rockets sixth victory in seven matches guarantees that they will finish in the top three because they have amassed 24 points and occupy the first position, having eight more points than the three teams, namely Sunrisers Leeds, Welsh Fire and MI London, according to BBC Sport.
Although Trent Rockets made a poor start in their chase of 148 after Finn Allen was dismissed by Tom Curran followed by Aneurin Donald and Sam Billings who left the field after 30 balls, Ben Duckett’s 27 from 26 balls helped the team before he was bowled by Richard Gleeson halfway through the innings.
Santner and David Power Chase
Tim David and Mitchell Santner made the best use of the two dropped catches by Sam Curran and Sherfane Rutherford respectively to help their team achieve a sixth successive win with David scoring an undefeated 32 while the captain of the New Zealand white-ball team, Santner scored his first Hundred half-century in just 21 deliveries before hitting the winning runs in the penultimate over.
In the earlier part of the match, MI London, who were batting first, got off to a good start with the well-performing Will Jacks, who had three fifties in four matches, making ominous threats but two fantastic fielding acts stopped them.
After Tim David completed a wonderful backhand catch to dismiss James Vince, Duckett’s direct hit when he was lying on the ground dismissed Nicholas Pooran in two balls leaving them at 35-2.
Jacks and captain Sam Curran started building up for their team but opener Jacks was dismissed for 39 owing to a superb reflex catch by the leg spinner Calvin Harrison.
However, wickets kept on falling from one end for the hosts, but not before captain Sam Curran completed his 30-ball half-century in which he scored 72 from 46 balls including four fours and five sixes. He was eventually dismissed on the last ball of the match.
MI London posted 147-7 in this innings.
