Alex Hales leads Trent Rockets to opening Hundred win

Trent Rockets kicked off their Hundred campaign with a six-wicket win over Birmingham Phoenix in front of a packed Trent Bridge.

Birmingham beat their Midlands rivals home and away in the inaugural season but were well beaten on this occasion as Alex Hales led the way with 58 off 41 balls.

He shared partnerships of 52 off 33 with Colin Munro (36 off 22) and 79 off 54 with Joe Root, who finished on 34 not out from 26 balls as skipper Lewis Gregory hit the winning boundary with three balls to spare.

Liam Livingstone hit five sixes in his 28-ball 47 and Moeen Ali three in his 21-ball 35 for the Phoenix but with four Rockets bowlers conceding 1.2 runs per ball or fewer, Daniel Sams taking three for 24, their 143 from 100 balls always looked chaseable even on a slow pitch.

Put in, Phoenix lost Will Smeed to ball 12 but Moeen turned a modest powerplay into a decent one with back-to-back sixes down the ground off Matt Carter.

Ali looked in the mood as he slog-swept Rashid Khan for another maximum as he and Miles Hammond – a late stand-in after Australia’s Matthew Wade scratched due to illness – added 53 off 31 before Ali picked out Rashid at deep mid-wicket.

A couple of chances to Tom Kohler-Cadmore went begging, the biggest allowing Livingstone an escape on eight when he fumbled a stumping chance off Samit Patel, but two wickets in four balls by the veteran left-arm spinner saw Hammond fall for 28 off 19 via a fine catch in the deep by Hales and new man Dan Mousley caught at mid-off.

Chris Benjamin went cheaply too and, with Phoenix needing to find something, Livingstone provided it with three sixes in a row over the leg side off Rashid, whose 20 balls cost a painful 39 runs.

But left-arm seamer Luke Wood conceded only seven