Manchester Super Giants (formerly Manchester Originals) finally won the title at their third attempt at the historic ground of Lord’s. On the basis of Tim Seifert’s stormy innings of 72 runs, the Super Giants defeated the topper Trent Rockets by five wickets in the final and won the men’s The Hundred title for the first time. With this victory, the Manchester Super Giants also settled the account of the previous two defeats in the final. The team lost the finals to Trent Rockets in 2022 and Oval Invincibles in 2023.
Noor Ahmed brought initial success to Rockets
Electing to bat first, Trent Rockets got off to a good start with a 48-run partnership between Finn Allen and Ben Duckett. However, Afghanistan’s wrist spinner Noor Ahmed changed the course of the match by sending both the openers to the pavilion within four balls. Aneurin Donald attacked Noor as soon as he arrived and scored 17 runs in the first six balls, but he was out after scoring 38 runs in 19 balls. After this the Rockets score became 97/5.
Gregory-Santner took charge
Lewis Gregory and Mitchell Santner took charge of the struggling Trent Rockets. Gregory scored 61 runs in the last 30 balls by hitting consecutive sixes against Liam Dawson and Gus Atkinson and took the team to a strong score of 158/8 in 100 balls. Manchester Super Giants had a target of 159 runs. Tim Seifert gave aggressive style to the Super Giants from the very beginning while chasing the target. He scored 14 runs on the first five balls of Mohammad Aamir and made a partnership of 61 runs in just 31 balls with Paul Walter. Seifert completed his half-century in just 23 balls and laid the foundation of the team’s victory by scoring 72 runs in 38 balls with the help of seven sixes. For this performance he was also named the best player (MVP) of the tournament. He scored a total of 394 runs in the tournament. Captain Jos Buttler played a quick inning of 23 runs in 14 balls, while Luc Du Plooy scored an unbeaten 27 runs to take the team closer to the target.
Dawson won the title by hitting a six in the last over
After Seifert was out, the Rockets tried to get back into the contest. Heinrich Klaasen was out on a brilliant catch and Michael Bracewell returned without opening the account on the second ball. The match came down to the last five balls. However, Liam Dawson showed great composure under pressure and sent Ben Sanderson’s ball over midwicket for a six. With this six, the Super Giants scored 162/5 in 98 balls and won by five wickets and won The Hundred trophy for the first time.
Brief scores: Trent Rockets 158/8 (Aneurin Donald 38, Lewis Gregory 32, Ben Duckett 31; Noor Ahmed 3/33, Sonny Baker 2/34) lost to Manchester Super Giants 162/5 (Tim Seifert 72; Mohammad Amir 3/29, Kelvin Harrison 2/30) by five wickets.