Manchester Originals beat Birmingham Phoenix to register their fourth consecutive win in the Men’s Hundred tournament. Originals won the match by 79 runs after destroying the Phoenix side.
After winning the toss Manchester decided to bat first, Salt the wicket-keeper batsman came on to open the innings along with the skipper Laurie Evans, even though the skipper couldn’t stand strong, Salt scored an amazing half-century to carry the innings forward for Manchester side, Salt sliced his third fifty of the campaign where he scored 56 runs from 38 deliveries with a strike rate of 147.37.
Salt couldn’t stay in the crease till the end as he was dismissed by Kane Richardson and the Manchester side was in huge trouble but the sixth wicket partnership between Turner and Lammonby helped the Manchester side to post a decent total of 154 runs for 6 wickets in Hundred balls.
In reply, the Phoenix side came on to bat with an aggressive mode but they were unable to convert the aggression into runs. Will Smeed tried to stand strong but fell prey to Walter after scoring quick 31 runs from 17 balls with a strike rate of 182.35, After Chris Benjamin was dismissed the Phoenix side lost control of the situation.
Wickets were crumbling for the Phoenix side as Manchester completely dominate the bowling performance by destroying the opposition, after restricting them to 75 and claiming the victory by 79 runs.
Tom Hartley was the hero after he picked up four wickets in 20 balls with an economy of 1.1. Tom was amazing in bowling the perfect balls to the right batsman to keep the Phoenix side from chasing down the target.
With his amazing bowling performance, Tom Hartley won the match of the match award, after receiving the award Tom Hartley was asked about his thoughts regarding the match he was quoted saying “It was a nice wicket to bowl on. Tried to use the pitch. I hoped to get some turn seeing the Women’s game. We thought we had a good score on the board. We had to use the cutters well and also the spinners. We lost the first three. We have picked up the rhythm at the right time.”
Laurie Evans the skipper of Manchester Originals was asked about the comeback after losing the first 3 games in a row and in reply he stated that “It’s a huge win, They’ve been must-win games all the way through for us, ever since we lost three out of three. The boys were outstanding. We thought we were a little bit under par, but it turned out to be a pretty competitive score.”
