Southern Brave's title defence ends with a whimper

Northern Superchargers 135 for 8 beat Southern Brave 119 for 9 (Ahmed 33, Parnell 4-18) by 16 runs

Southern Brave’s disappointing title defence in the men’s Hundred ended with a whimper as they failed to chase 136 in a dead-rubber defeat against Northern Superchargers at Headingley.

Both teams, out of finals contention before a ball was bowled here, should have performed better with the bat on a pitch which was tired but not disastrously so.

In reply, Brave slumped to 34 for 4 in 26 balls and failed to recover. In posting 119 for 9, they suffered a fifth defeat in eight – this one by 16 runs.

After a breezy start, Superchargers were checked by the varied spin of legspinner Ahmed, offie Paul Stirling and left-arm wristspinner Jake Lintott. The latter two struck once apiece. Three of their top four all reached 20 and failed to go on.

After the early departure of captain Faf du Plessis to Ahmed, caught by mid-on running around towards mid-off, his opening partner Adam Lyth made 20, David Willey reached 22 and Brook with his aforementioned 29. But all holed out to catches in the deep as the score fell to 91 for 4 after 67 balls.

Seamer Sonny Baker had Lyth caught at deep midwicket off a top-edge and Brook caught in the same position pulling before Ahmed struck again when Adam Hose found long-on.

Michael Pepper, David Wiese and Parnell all made it into double figures and threatened late acceleration, though Brave were as clinical with the ball and in the field as they were so often last year and not enough this. Seamer Fuller removed Wiese and Rashid in the penultimate set of five – again to catches in the deep.

In many ways, this Brave performance was a microcosm of this season’s campaign: inconsistent. After being polished with the ball and in the field, they were all over the place with the bat in the early stages of their reply, losing some serious firepower in the first 26 balls.

Quinton de Kock was run out trying to take a suicidal single to short fine-leg before Parnell’s left-arm seam accounted for Stirling and Alex Davies. Left-arm spinner Callum Parkinson then bowled captain James Vince. From 34 for 4, Ahmed and Ross Whiteley steadied with a partnership of 27.

However, when the latter miscued Adil Rashid’s legspin to long-on, leaving the score at 61 for 5 after 49 balls, it felt a decisive juncture. So it proved: big-hitting Singaporean Tim David drilled Wiese to long-off shortly afterwards.

The feewheeling Ahmed continued his impressive day, and a turnaround was on the cards when he shared 28 in 16 balls with Fuller, both hitting strong shots down the ground. But when Ahmed miscued Parnell to long-on, leaving the score at 104 for 7 after 83 balls, 32 runs were still required.

That target became 26 off 10, and it was all but game over when Parnell yorked Fuller for 25 to leave 22 still needed off six. Willey closed things out by bowling Baker, even celebrating with a forward roll.

Source: ESPN Crickinfo