The Analysis: Trent Rockets display air of efficiency in streetwise display

NICK FRIEND: Rockets had all bases covered with the ball and then unveiled a batting line-up sufficiently jampacked for Joe Root not to be needed in the run-chase

You'd have to be in some considerable strife in a game of 100-ball cricket for your No.8 to come to the rescue with a half century.

But when Adam Hose was sixth man out for Northern Superchargers, stumped by Tom Kohler-Cadmore off the 53rd ball of the match, David Wiese strode out to the middle with his team in that particular pocket of trouble.

Five sixes later, all struck with his trademark, long-levered swing down the ground, he was leaving the Headingley stage to a standing ovation. It made him the first player to fifty from the lower order in The Hundred's short history, though ultimately in vain.

For as long as Trent Rockets can restrict their opponents to even semi-manageable targets, they will prove difficult to beat. Joe Root will soon disappear to Test duty, but for the time being he is stationed at No.6 as the ultimate firefighter, beneath four of the cleanest hitters in the sport.

Alex Hales, loyal to his favourite bat to the point of taping it up with ankle strapping, was brutal at one end, with Dawid Malan – unironically considered one of the circuit's best flat-pitch hitters – playing a typical hand at the other, nursing his side towards a total that as the game wore on began to look sub-par.

He pulled out all the hits: driving through extra cover, slog-sweeping Adil Rashid's leg-spin, hitting a Dwayne Bravo full-toss hard over his head. He finished unbeaten on 88, usurping Will Jacks for the highest score so far in this year's tournament.

^{David Wiese smashed fifty for Northern Superchargers to temporarily rescue them from strife (Stu Forster/Getty Images)}

Rockets have played twice now and both times chased down similarly awkward scores with a minimum of fuss. Samit Patel and Daniel Sams are two of the handier finishers in the competition and neither have been required as yet. Colin Munro, such an awkward customer, provides a second left-hander in the top four but with the added bonus of a reverse-hit played with such frequency that opposing teams have to account for both sides of the wicket in their fields.

Superchargers, on the other hand, were always fighting a losing battle, even if their lower order – led by Wiese but supported by Roelof van der Merwe (both of whom would later drop catches) – launched a valiant counterattack. But the twin departures of openers Adam Lyth and Faf du Plessis for ducks – in Lyth's case, to the first ball of a match – meant that a winning score was likely to rely on something special.

Michael Pepper looked glorious for 15 and Bravo rolled back the years with three crisp boundaries after a surprise appearance in the top four, but they were well beaten.

Luke Fletcher was chosen ahead of Matt Carter in the battle of the Nottinghamshire giants, with Fletcher – who was a mid-tournament pick by Welsh Fire in 2021 – not a typical modern T20 seamer but a terrific yorker-bowler whose slower-ball-bouncer became a constant source of frustration to Superchargers' middle order.

Patel, likewise, was unspectacular but streetwise to a core: his final set included a couple of wides and a pair of hittable full-tosses but he worked to a straightforward plan of sliding the ball onto the right-hander's wide line. Tabraiz Shamsi, a very different kind of left-arm spinner, worked to the entirely opposite ploy: bowling his wrist-spinner into the right-hander's hip as a stock option and conceding just 22 runs across his 20 balls as a result.

^{Dawid Malan hit the highest score of the season so far (Stu Forster/Getty Images)}

Lewis Gregory, their captain, was a spectator for the most part, bowling 10 balls and sliding in to finish the job ahead of Root.

His main job was to marshal an impressive display from a team currently missing Rashid Khan, though he might take inspiration from Superchargers' unused squad members, who appeared to act as ball-boys in an attempt to save time on the shot-clock that meant Rockets became the latest team to finish their fielding innings with an extra man inside the circle.

Fletcher briefly joined Sky's commentary team to complain that the clock was penalising wickets, but otherwise there could be little to critique on a near-perfect night for a side that ought to take some stopping.

Related Topics

• Northern Superchargers v Trent Rockets AS IT HAPPENED