Brook leads Superchargers to third win in a row as Originals fluff chase

Northern Superchargers 167 for 5 (Brook 58) beat Manchester Originals 153 for 6 (Hurst 78, Santner 2-23) by 14 runs

Northern Superchargers made it two wins from two over Manchester Originals in the northern derbies at Headingley in the Hundred on Sunday. Harry Brook‘s side beat the team from the other side of the Pennines by 14 runs to follow success for Hollie Armitage’s team earlier in the day.

Originals won the toss and chose to bowl, which looked a great choice with rain falling before the start of the match and thick clouds overhead. Unsurprisingly then, Superchargers got off to a slow start with the bat, as Fazalhaq Farooqi took a wicket with the very first ball of the match.

Graham Clark and captain Brook rebuilt the innings with a well-paced 50 partnership. Brook went on to score an explosive 58 off 33, before being caught out by Scott Currie low to the ground at mid-off.

After a strong middle to the home side’s innings, Originals came back strongly at the end to restrict Superchargers to 167 for 5.

Captain Phil Salt and Matty Hurst got Originals’ innings off to a very promising start with 90 for the opening partnership. Salt scoring 40 from 27, while the impressive Hurst top-scored with 78 from 45.

Unfortunately for the winless Originals, they then capitulated from 90 for 1 to 128 for 4 thanks to some game-turning run-outs and Mitchell Santner, who took 2 for 23. When Hurst departed, Originals required 29 from 13, but they were unable to get over the line, leaving them rooted to the bottom of the table and Superchargers up into third.

Meerkat Match Hero Brook said: “I felt like they were the favourites coming out of the powerplay, but we bowled unbelievably well at the death to get the win.

“We didn’t have the batting powerplay that we wanted, but we stuck to our task. The outfield is so quick here that I didn’t feel like I needed to hit many balls in the air, so I was just trying to pierce the gaps and it worked. I was just trying to stay in until the end, so I could put pressure on them at the end. I felt good at the start and thankfully I hit a few gaps.

“We’ve always got a take-wickets mentality, but we obviously had to think about that a bit more when we didn’t get a wicket in powerplay, and they were 90 without loss. So, I tossed the ball to [Adil] Rashid and Mitch [Santner], and they did a really good job in getting some crucial wickets that helped us get the win.”