NS vs OI, AI Simulation | Harry Brook leads from front with unbeaten knock as Superchargers defeat Invincibles in epic chase

‌Pitch and Weather

The weather at Headingley was nice and breezy with the temperature at 21 degrees Celsius. Though it was a slightly cloudy afternoon, there was no sign of rain.

Toss

Oval Invinvcibles won the toss and chose to bat first

Lineups

Northern Superchargers: Zak Crawley, Dawid Malan, Michael-Kyle Pepper (wk), Harry Brook (c), Dan Lawrence, David Miller, Mitchell Santner, Tom Lawes, Matthew Potts, Adil Rashid, Jacob Duffy.

Oval Invincibles: Will Jacks, Tawanda Muyeye, Jordan Cox, Sam Curran, Sam Billings (c/wk), Donovan Ferreira, Tom Curran, Rashid Khan, Nathan Sowter, Saqib Mahmood, Jason Behrendorff.

Match Report

Oval Invincibles won the toss and chose to bat first on a solid batting track at Headingley. Openers Will Jacks and Twanda Muyeye started well with the bat, with Jacks playing the aggressor and Muyeye controlling the strike at the other end. The Northern Superchargers were under the pump straight away, with 44 runs coming in the powerplay without the loss of a wicket. Though the partnership of 57 was finally broken by Adil Rashid, who foxed Mueye with a beauty, Jacks continued to take the attack to the bowlers and got a bit of support from Jordan Cox. With the two batters looking solid at the crease, the Invincibles were still looking good at 89/1 after 50 balls. The partnership between the two was looking strong until Santner managed to get the prized wicket of Jacks on the 55th delivery after the latter mistimed a slog to deep mid-wicket. After Jacks was finally dismissed for a well-made 42 off 23 deliveries, Rashid came back for another over and dismissed Cox for 21. The next 25 balls were dominated by the Superchargers, who only conceded 32 runs as the score stood at 121/3 after 75 balls. While the two wickets did cause a bit of a problem, it seemed to go from bad to worse as Matthew Potts came back for one last spell and got the wickets of Sam Billings and Donovan Farriera as soon as they started to look threatening at the crease. As the innings started to look glum, Sam Curran came to the rescue with his knock of 36 off 24 deliveries and made sure the Invincibles reached a competitive score of 161/6 in the end.

While this seemed like a challenging total for the Superchargers, the openers Zak Crawley and Dawid Malan made sure they had a nice and brisk start and ended the powerplay on a score of 48/0. Despite the decent, spinners Rashid Khan and Nathan Sowter kept the runs dry in the middle order. Trouble started to erupt with Rashid finally breaking the partnership with a wicket of Crawley in the 45th ball, and Michael Kyle Pepper struggling to give the necessary support to Malan. The Superchargers might not have lost a lot of wickets, but they only managed 31 runs in the next 25 balls, which took them to a score of 79/1 after 50 balls. There was more tension created after Tom Curran got the wicket of Pepper on the 54th ball, but things started to change once Superchargers skipper Harry Brook came to the crease. Brook, along with Malan, formed an important partnership for the third wicket as the hosts scored 45 runs in the next 25 balls, bringing the score to 124/2 after 75 balls. With only 38 runs needed off the last 24 balls and wickets in hand, it seemed like the game had just about tilted in the home team’s favor. Unfortunately, the defending champions had another trick up their sleeve as Jason Behrendorff came back for a final spell and created havoc. The left-arm seamer not only cleaned up Malan on a score of 44 off 29 with a Jaffa but also got the wicket of David Miller 87th ball. This brought the game in the balance with the Chargers needing 17 off the last 10 deliveries. However, the game was done and dusted with Harry Brook smashing Mahmood for the remaining 17 runs in the penultimate over. The Chargers won the game by six wickets and five balls to spare, with their skipper remaining unbeaten on 53 off 30 deliveries.

Player of the match

Harry Brook was the player of the match as he led from the front with an unbeaten half-century.

Scorecard