Trent Rockets kicked off their campaign in The Hundred men's competition with an effortless victory over the Birmingham Phoenix at Edgbaston on Friday night.
Phoenix finished their innings with 122-6 but it never looked enough, and David Willey's Rockets side were led to a comfortable six-wicket victory by a strong bowling effort spearheaded by Lockie Ferguson (3-20) and a chase fronted by Tom Banton (42 from 29).
Meerkat Match Hero, Lockie Ferguson, said: "It was a good night, I started well with Dave. The boys bowled excellently and gave a reasonable total for the batters to chase. It was nice to get one under the belt early on in the comp.
"The short boundary on the leg side was intimidating for sure but the boys looked at change ups and hit the yorker well. We got early wickets that really helped us through the middle."
Asked to bowl first, the Rockets attack made early inroads, removing Phoenix's top three of Ben Duckett, Will Smeed and Aneurin Donald to leave the home side 24-3 after the 25-ball power play.
Sam Cook's brilliant work off his own bowling to run out Jacob Bethell left Phoenix reeling, but a defiant Liam Livingstone (39) and Joe Clarke (29) partnership led a rebuild. Livingstone played a captain's knock, hitting three sixes in his 30-ball stay, while Clarke struggled for fluency; a brilliant set from Ferguson removed them both.
Despite some tight Rockets death bowling, a couple of late blows from Dan Mousley and Benny Howell brought Phoenix closer to a respectable total.
In reply, although Tim Southee (2-36) bowled Joe Root early on, the Rockets began aggressively against the trio of Kiwi quicks. Banton and Rehan Ahmed (25 from 16) struck some lusty blows to quickly bring the runs required to below a run-a-ball.
Although Ahmed and Banton were both removed by Benny Howell (2-25), who was the pick of the Phoenix bowlers, Max Holden (22 from 13) led the Rockets comfortably home with 22 balls to spare.
On their fixture against the Northern Superchargers on Sunday, Ferguson added: "It's a one-day turnaround before we play the Superchargers so we'll scope them out tomorrow. They're another strong side who played well the other night. It's important to go and put on a show in front of our home fans."
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