89/4 (14.3)
CR : 6.14
87/10 (16.4)
CR : 5.22
Manchester Originals won by 6 wickets
Player of the Match
Matthew Parkinson
4/9
14.2
0
L Livingstone to C Brathwaite
Short of a length turning away from Brathwaite and he whips that down the mid-on fielder off the backfoot.
14.3
4
L Livingstone to C Brathwaite
Carlos Brathwaite doesn't hang around. One shot from the big Caribbean and the game is done and dusted. Tossed up outside off and Brathwaite hits that uppishly well over the mid-off fielder and it reaches the boundary ropes.
Arya: A thoroughly convincing win for the Manchester Originals as they thrash the Birmingham Phenonix by 6 wickets to open their account in the inaugural edition of "The Hundred". It proved to be a walk in the park for Manchester taking just 73 bowlers to chase the total down.
Mark Parkinson is the Hero of the Match- It's been a slow season for me so far. The wicket of Livingstone feels good. It was good, too feel some momentum for the past two weeks. To play on a used pitch feels good as a spinner. Liam is a fantastic player, he is very confident as well and fortunate to get one over him.
Arya: Philip Salt and Jos Buttler provided a flying start to the Manchester Originals in their pursuit of a target of 88. Salt in particular was the attacking of the duo as he raced off to a 11 balls 22 before Imran Tahir foxed him with a brilliant googly. Some good middle overs gave the Phoenix a glimmer of hope but Buttler ensured there was no hiccup. He was eventually dismissed by Liam Livingstone on the 71st delivery and by then the match was done and dusted. Tahir, Moeen, Livingstone and Bowell tooked a wicket each.
Arya: It was Moeen Ali who won the toss early on and opted to bat. Right from the word go, Pheonix were pushed under the pump with wickets at regular intervals. Mark Parkinson was quite exceptional and his wicket of Liam Livingstone set the tone for the rest of the innings. There was no partnership in the middle whatsoever and it never allowed the Pheonix to press on the accelerator. Eventually Parkinson wiped out the tail in his final over bagging 3 and finishing with figures of 4/9.
Moeen Ali, Birmingham Pheonix Captain- I thought the toss was big. Another 15-20 runs it would have been a really good game. Not ideal bowling options, I needed to bowl towards the end of the powerplay. I think more the game plan, it's a good wicket to sweep and reverse, everything else was very difficult on the pitch. We didn't realise the pitch would be as bad it was. Parki had his tail up and it was very difficult to counter him. Ideal situation was to scrape through 100 but it didn't happen. Just hurt by back, but will be fine in a few days. Hopefull we will forget this and move forward.
Jos Buttler, Manchester Originals Captain- Absolutely delighted to get the win. Sometimes you have to find way to win these games. I think probably having played the other game it was a bit easy to understand our options. Kept putting pressure on the game, heard most saying 20-25 would have been critical. Parkinson was absolutely brilliant. Ofcourse don't want to see too many pitches like this. The batters are hoping that the next match it will be a fresh wicket. But it's all about finding ways to win.
That brings us to an end of our coverage from this match in the Hundred. Join us tomorrow again on the same time. Till then it's ta-ta and good night from Arya Sekhar Chakraborty and my fellow commentator Arjun Bhalla.