Lewis Gregory fires Trent Rockets past Manchester Originals to win Hundred

Across 95 balls Manchester Originals controlled their opponents and their own nerves to stand on the verge of defending what had appeared a hopelessly small target and stealing a remarkable victory. Chasing 121, Trent Rockets found themselves needing 11 off the final five, with Richard Gleeson to bowl it and Lewis Gregory, their captain, on strike.

It took until the 196th ball of the final for the contest to slip off its knife-edge. Gregory brilliantly flicked it over square leg for six, the next went fine for four, and a single saw his side home with two balls to spare.

They had seemed to be motoring gently to victory at 97 for five, but a few minutes later it was 107 for eight and black-clad fielders were cavorting around the outfield in celebration of another catch in the deep and the faint, delicious but ultimately short-lived scent of glory.

This was not the high-scoring, high-octane, big-thrill run-fest organisers would have hoped for. Instead they got something of a slow burner, or as slow as the format allows. One for the Hundred-following purist, perhaps, if such a beast exists.

Unexpectedly, Originals watched the women’s final, in which the team that won the toss chose to bat, struggled on an awkward surface to post a competitive total and convincingly lost, and then won the toss, chose to bat, and struggled on an awkward surface to post a competitive total. That, though, is where they managed to supply a plot twist, with their bowlers, inspired perhaps by the goings-on at Cape Canaveral, making sure the Rockets had nothing to fuel their much-anticipated launch.

So it was that a match billed as a meeting of the tournament’s two most impressive opening partnerships saw them broken for just 13 and 16. Rockets of