SHIVAM PATHAK recaps the action from The Oval as the Southern Brave eased themselves into tomorrow's final in anti-climactic fashion
The second Eliminator match at The Oval was a one-sided affair after Southern Brave bowled out Trent Rockets for just 96 runs.
Having won the toss and electing to field first, the tournament's most feared pace attack did not waste their choice, as the 10 wickets were shared between the seamers - George Garton and Tymal Mills taking three each.
In reply, there was little sign of the Brave failing to chase down the two-digit score, with Paul Stirling and James Vince adding 76 runs between them, seeing them through to tomorrow's final against Birmingham Phoenix.
Here's how it happened...
Ball 5: First boundary of the evening! It's a leg stump delivery from George Garton, and Malan is able just to shuffle his feet and flick round the pads, zipping through fine leg. 6-0
Ball 6: Shot! Creamed through covers. In the slot from Overton - and Dawid Malan practises for his national duties next week by opening the face and beautifully pushing through the off-side. 10-0
Ball 11: Nicked behind and Malan's out! Garton is in the wickets. Banged in, shorter length, moving away from the batsman in the fourth stump region. Malan looks to drive through point but the bounce kisses the top edge and sails straight to de Kock who makes no mistake. 15-1
Ball 15: Slower one... edged and gone! Alex Hales has to walk. The change of pace has done the trick. On a length, George Garton shaves off 20 mph from the last delivery - and on off stump, Hales throws his bat at it. There's a top edge and Quinton de Kock has his second catch of the game. Big wicket and Hales clenches his fists. Great set for the paceman. 18-1
HUGE WICKET(S)! ⚡⚡
— Sky Sports Cricket (@SkyCricket) August 20, 2021
Garton has two massive wickets in the space of his latest set of five - openers Malan (14) and Hales (3) both gone#SouthernBrave 🟢 #TrentRockets 🟡 #TheHundredEliminator
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Ball 20: Bowled 'im! Mullaney goes. The nip-backer, bails dislodged. Craig Overton has a wicket, top of a length and the seam draws the swing off the bounce, moving in, beating the 34-year-old's bat and lighting up the stumps. 24-3
Ball 25: D'Arcy Short fires straight to mid-wicket! Southern Brave dominating the proceedings early on here. Garton's length this time is Short, and D'Arcy is foxed as he looks to open up the face of the bat, but it takes a leading edge and gives Tymal Mills one of the easier catches he will have make in his career. 31-4
Ball 45: Six! Samit Patel whacks over square. Fuller and on the pads from Lintott, Patel is able to get onto his knee and just nail it over the fielder and the rope. 52-4
Ball 57: Full toss is taken at cover! Paul Stirling gets low quickly and makes the grab - Tymal Mills has his first wicket of the day. Wide of off stump, it's by the knee roll and Gregory just takes any contact he can get, and it's lofted to the ring for the take. 62-5
Balls 65 and 66: Two for two! 12 runs off two thwacks. The first is from Jake Lintott who tosses full, allowing Moores to come all the way down and crack over long-off, the second is from Craig Overton, who puts it short permitting the batsman to turn the shoulder and hook over square. 79-5
Ball 70: Taken! What a catch from Lintott! Samit Patel and Tom Moores were building a decent partnership, but that's been nipped in the bud. Full from Overton, angling in, Patel tries to crack it through the off-side, but there's not enough height involved, and it sails to mid-off where Lintott throws himself at it and makes the grab on the dive. 82-6
How good have Southern Brave been in the field? 👌🔥#TheHundred pic.twitter.com/0iIkPLjXXX
— The Cricketer (@TheCricketerMag) August 20, 2021
Ball 79: Down to long-off, taken on the jump! Slower from Jordan, Tom Moores gets plenty under it and it's slogged to the boundary where Craig Overton is right by the rope - he grabs, jumps, and skips over again to take it second time round. There's some initial confusion as it may have looked like he touched the rope for six, but the third umpire rules in the fielding side's favour. 87-7
Ball 84: Straight up in the air and taken! Mills switches it up and delivers his side's eighth wicket. Wide, slower and Rashid Khan chases - it finds the top edge and it shoots towards backward point, where no mistake is made on the ring. 88-8
Ball 88: De Lange has whacked this for six! Proper short-form exchange - full, angling in from Jordan and the South African uses his height and reach just to bludgeon it into the fans at midwicket. 95-8
Ball 90: Caught behind! Jordan's second. Good length from the England international, wider of off stump - Matt Carter chases the wide one and it takes a visible nick - de Kock's hands as safe as normal. 96-9
Ball 91: Edged and gone, that'll do! Marchant de Lange swipes at once, pitched up full by Tymal Mills. There's a little kiss on the top of the bat and through it goes to de Kock who has four catches behind now. Rockets done with nine balls left over! 96-10 A/O
Well, that's not a great total from Trent Rockets, to put it nicely. Samit Patel's 20 was the highest individual score of the lot. Brilliant bowling from Southern Brave and they can get through to the final chasing a total at below a run a ball.
Ball 1: Not a bad start! Matt Carter pitches it wide, angling away, and Paul Stirling turns the shoulder and flicks it through fine leg for four. 4-0
Ball 5: Low and powerful for six! That was a Stirling effort. Floated on middle, it bounces early and the batsman is able to just shuffle back before knocking it over the rope at midwicket. 12-0
Ball 11: Four for de Kock! It's his compatriot de Lange who goes full on the feet, but the wicket-keeper-batsman turns the face of the bat and lets it zip off its own pace through the on-side. 22-0
Ball 12: But that's his last action of the game! De Lange strikes back well. Much shorter this time, de Kock looks to hook it but it takes the nick. It balloons right the way up and Cook at fine leg is able to let it drop from the dark sky into his mitts. 22-1
DE KOCK GONE! ⚡
— Sky Sports Cricket (@SkyCricket) August 20, 2021
A big wicket if the Brave are to fight back in this game - De Lange gets De Kock for 6, well taken by Cook in the deep.#SouthernBrave 🟢 #TrentRockets 🟡 #TheHundredEliminator
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Ball 18: Six! James Vince bludgeons this. Rashid Khan taking some early punishment. It's a straight one that pitches full, and the slower ball doesn't work as Vince gets slow before demolishing this over the long midwicket boundary. 38-1
Ball 24: Bang! Stirling has another six. Much too full and central from Sam Cook, in the proverbial Slot, and there is Stirling to bend his knee and biff it over long-off. 50-1
Ball 30: Back over the bowler's head again! James Vince reads Samit Patel's length perfectly, which was admittedly too nice for someone in this kind of move. It's low yet powerful from Vince, taking the bounce on the straight to find the boundary. 57-1
Ball 39: Lovely stroke from Stirling! He's reverse-sweeping now. Length ball from Carter, angling in, and he commits to it nice and early, brushing it through backward point for four. 68-1
Ball 40: Gone now! Carter has his man. Full and wide, Stirling chases and slogs high to long-off. De Lange takes it above his head, but seems to have shelled it. Thankfully for him, as he falls he grabs second time of asking. 69-2
Ball 42: Stumping chance goes begging! A beautiful googly from Rashid, beats the batsman Davies and the wicket-keeper too - he fumbles it and Davies gets his feet back in. 70-3
Ball 47: Six more for Vince! Full from Rashid Khan this time, wide of off, allowing Vince to simply kneel before sweeping with venom all the way over the man at long-on. 77-2
Southern Brave are running away with this...#TheHundred pic.twitter.com/uZ2TPqvJFr
— The Cricketer (@TheCricketerMag) August 20, 2021
Ball 52: Caught behind! Got 'im on review. De Lange has another. Banged in, full and moving away, Alex Davies looks to swing through the off-side - there's a little noise and the umpire isn't interested. It's sent upstairs near instantly where a large spike on Ultra-Edge is revealed. 83-3
Ball 63: Flicked away by Vince for a single - 10 more needed now. 88-3
Ball 68: That'll do! James Vince cuts this one through backward point for four, and this Eliminator is settled! 97-3
The Reaction
George Garton, who took 3-18, was named Match Hero.
"It's a great feeling", he said. "It was nice to put in a performance in an Eliminator. We look for match-winners in our team, so it was nice to put my hand up to get us through to the Final."
His side come into the final off six consecutive victories (not including an abandoned game), a contrast to their first two defeats that started them off. "It's true that we got off to a slow start, but that feels an age ago now - not many people remember the first game. In the short format, it's all about getting on a roll, and we've seemed to be able to do that."
"Our bowling unit today really performed well. We've seen the lads dovetail brilliantly - so if one guy is having a bad day, then someone pulls out the slack. Tonight was my night, but I thought the team, especially the batting to go out there and knock it around, was top draw."
James Vince, Brave captain, commented: "We weren't quite sure how the wicket was going to play. We brought the extra seamer in, which offered a little bit up front - Garts took wickets early and it went as good as it could have from there, all the bowlers did their job magnificently well."
On his side's bowling unit, which has drawn significant praise, he added: "I hadn't played a huge amount with or captained many of them before this competition. It took a few games to realise what their strengths were - left them to it most of the time; they had played enough cricket: set their own fields, I'd like to take some credit, but they've done all of it themselves."
Looking ahead to Birmingham Phoenix, Vince explained: "I think was our most complete performance of the competition ahead of tomorrow. I know Birmingham have been playing some really good cricket as well, so it may be a bit tougher than tonight, but the players will know their roles. [Livingstone] is in the form of his life, he's up there with the hardest players to bowl at at the minute. That doesn't mean he's booked in to score runs - we've managed to take wickets fairly consistently through the competition, so hopefully we have the firepower and the skills to overcome them tomorrow night."
On The Hundred as a whole, he added "I was a bit sceptical at the start about how the tournament would go down - as we are in England, there's a few grumbles and stuff! But I honestly don't think it could have gone any better. The crowds have been fantastic and tonight was no different."
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