There were times where the Trent Rockets were just hanging onto their home fixture against Southern Brave, before they ultimately fell to a six-wicket loss.
Having been put into bat, the Rockets were in trouble early on. The early introduction of Tilly Corteen-Coleman, the 17-year-old left-arm spinner, caused Nat Wraith problems. She should have had the Rockets’ batter out the ball before, as a leading edge fell agonisingly short of Freya Kemp. The same shot was played next ball and Kemp had no trouble taking a shoulder-high catch. Two balls later the Rockets’ inspirational allrounder Nat Sciver-Brunt was stumped for a duck.
Of the top order, only Bryony Smith with ten and Ash Gardner, the captain, with 25 made double figures. Corteen-Coleman and Lauren Bell were the architects of the Rockets’ downfall. With all the Rockets’ hopes falling on Gardner, Bell was brought back into the attack and bowled the Aussie. At 55 for seven, with 47 balls still to go, the Rockets were staring at a score under a hundred.
Alana King and Kirstie Gordon had a tough rebuilding job. The nature of the competition is to keep the scoring going, but with little left to follow it required sensible batting. Gordon was the more aggressive of the two, with King happy to rotate the strike, although one of King’s two boundaries was a six flicked through mid-wicket.
The pair added 51 for the ninth wicket and with it a faint chance they could make a game of it, having been bowled out for 106. It shouldn’t have been a competitive total, but on a tacky pitch where the ball wasn’t coming through to the batter, the bowler was always in the game.
It shouldn’t have been as close as it was, but with some momentum going the Rockets’ way they set about restricting their opponents and were gifted the early run out of Danni Wyatt-Hodge for four. It meant there was more responsibility on Maia Bouchier to make amends for the run out. She did just that with 42 from 30 balls.
Somehow the Rockets were still hanging in. Laura Wolvaardt, one of the best players on the world stage, was caught at mid-on by Sciver-Brunt to give Gordon her only wicket of the day. On a surface offering help for the spin bowlers and those able to vary their pace, Gardner and King chipped in, and Heather Graham, with her seam-up variations, made life difficult for any batter.
The key for the Brave was Sophie Devine, who paced her innings to perfection, finishing not out on 41 from 42 balls. It was an innings that showed just how important her experience is. With batting to come from Kemp, Chloe Tryon, Georgia Adams and Mady Villiers, there was no need to panic as the balls remaining overtook the runs required.
A big six from Kemp off Gordon shifted the game in the Brave’s favour. When Kemp was caught at deep mid-wicket by Sciver-Brunt — a catch that reached the deep with the hush and slow-motion quality that had the partisan crowd erupt in joy when it was safely pouched — it felt like there could be one last twist. Unfortunately for the home crowd, Brave took the spoils with a six-wicket win. The result puts them four points clear at the top of the table and leaves the Rockets a simple equation: win all their remaining matches to qualify out of the group.
