| The Hundred men’s competition, Sophia Gardens |
| Trent Rockets 152-6 (100 balls): Munro 66* (35); Willey 2-15, Ball 2-26, Van der Merwe 2-44 |
| Welsh Fire 148-6 (100 balls): Clarke 54 (34); Sams 2-35 |
| Rockets won by four runs |
| Scorecard; Table |
Defending champions Trent Rockets boosted their hopes of making the knockouts in The Hundred men’s competition with a four-run win over Welsh Fire in Cardiff.
Rockets slipped to 40-4 but recovered to post 152-6, with Colin Munro making an unbeaten 66 off 35 balls.
Fire needed 32 off 11 balls before Joe Clarke and Glenn Phillips hit sixes to reduce the target to 16 off seven.
But both were dismissed, with Rockets picking up their second win.
Rockets climb to third in the table, while Fire, who also lost to Southern Brave on Saturday, sit sixth.
Oval Invincibles top the table on seven points but five teams are now locked on five points underneath.
What else do you need to know?
- John Turner impressed on debut for Rockets, taking 1-22 from his 20 balls. He removed Jonny Bairstow early on before returning to conceded just 17 from his last 10 balls.
- England’s Bairstow only made three before being bowled. It followed the right-hander making a duck on his first appearance of the 2023 competition on Saturday.
- Dawid Malan’s struggles at the top of the order continued. The England batter made 10, meaning he has only scored 28 in four games.
- Joe Root ramped Jake Ball for six, but was caught behind looking to repeat the shot.
- Munro was on 24 from 21 balls but accelerated in the final 20 balls of the innings, adding 42 off his last 14 deliveries. Rockets added 51 off their final 20 balls.
- Pakistan’s Shaheen Afridi and Haris Rauf will now depart Welsh Fire to prepare for a series against Afghanistan, which starts on 22 August. Shaheen finishes his stint with six wickets and Rauf five. They will be replaced by New Zealand pair Lockie Ferguson and Matt Henry.
‘Nice to get over the line’ – what they said
Match Hero Colin Munro: “We’ve got some strikers at the end so we try and make sure they get a platform. I’m lucky some came out of the middle because It wasn’t a pretty first 20 balls.
“It was nice to get some runs and contribute because it has been a lean couple of games. It’s nice to get that over the line because we’ve lost a couple of close ones.
“I thought John Turner bowled really well on debut. It was outstanding the way he bowled to Joe Clarke, who is a top-class talent.”
You can watch Hundred matches on BBC Two and BBC iPlayer every Wednesday and Saturday throughout the competition, alongside both finals on Sunday, 27 August. More details.