Buttler hits 90 as Super Giants bowl Phoenix out for 100 at Old Trafford

Jos Buttler made 90 at Old Trafford on Sunday. Birmingham Phoenix, batting second and with ten wickets in hand, managed 100 between them. That gap is the whole story of Manchester Super Giants’ 87-run win, and it leaves them alone at the top of the men’s Hundred.

Buttler settles it inside 50 balls

Donovan Ferreira put the Super Giants in, and for a while it looked like a decent call. Tim Seifert went for 1 with the total on 3, Aiden Markram made 6 before Rehan Ahmed had him caught and bowled, and the hosts were 45 for 2 inside 31 balls.

Buttler had other ideas. He reached fifty from 31 balls, kept going through the middle overs while Heinrich Klaasen made a quick 20, and was finally caught off Saqib Mahmood with three balls left, out for 90 from 50 with seven fours and five sixes.

Tom Moores did the damage at the end. His 39 not out came off 17 balls and included five sixes, and the fifth-wicket stand he shared with Buttler was worth 68 from 28 balls. Manchester finished on 187 for 5. Rehan Ahmed’s 2 for 43 was the only bowling return Phoenix will want to look at again.

Dawson and Noor make the chase disappear

Phoenix needed a start and did not get one. Josh Tongue bowled Will Smeed for 8 and Rehan Ahmed first ball, and by the time Laurie Evans and Joe Clarke had gone the visitors were 43 for 4.

Clarke’s 20 ended with Buttler whipping the bails off to a Liam Dawson delivery, which is roughly when the game stopped being competitive. Ferreira top-scored with 23 from 25 balls, Scott Currie was left unbeaten on 14, with only Clarke, at 20, doing better. Phoenix were bowled out for 100 with three balls of their innings unused.

Dawson finished with 3 for 15 from his 17 balls. Noor Ahmad took 2 for 16, Tongue 2 for 21 and Sonny Baker 2 for 25, and Gus Atkinson conceded 20 from his 20 balls. Five bowlers, none of them expensive, on a ground where 187 had just been scored.

Where it leaves the table

Manchester have won both their games and sit top with 8 points and a net run rate of 2.350, well clear of Welsh Fire, who also have two wins from two but at a far lower rate. Phoenix drop to sixth at 1-1, and the beating leaves their net run rate at -1.925, the worst in the competition. With four teams already tied on 4 points, that number could decide who plays in the knockouts.

A crowd of 12,500 watched it. Manchester are back out against Sunrisers Leeds on 28 July, while Phoenix have three days to think about it before facing Southern Brave on 30 July.

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