The Men's Hundred 2022 Match 7 Preview: Northern Superchargers v Trent Rockets August 9th

The Hundred is nearly a full week into the men's tournament and there is a cracking match on the cards on Tuesday as Northern Superchargers and Trent Rockets lock horns at Headingley.

 

Both teams opened the 2022 season with victories and could be tough to separate in West Yorkshire, with the visitors on a high after beating last season's runners-up, Birmingham Phoenix.

 

Superchargers need Brook to see off Originals

The Superchargers missed out on a play-off berth in the inaugural season of The Hundred, but they began the new campaign with a six-wicket win over Manchester Originals.

The Originals set the Superchargers a target of 162 at Old Trafford and the visitors reached their target with six balls to spare.

Adam Lyth set them on their way with a polished 51 off 30 balls to start with, but it was far from plain sailing for the Superchargers, who required 30 runs off the final 15 balls to win.

Fortunately, franchise rising star Harry Brook stepped up to the plate and got on top of Manchester spinner Tom Hartley in the decisive moments of the game.

Brook finished on an unbeaten 33 off of only 19 balls, hitting two sixes in the process and is one to keep an eye on in the top batter markets this year.

But it is hard to look past Lyth,13/5 to be top batter for the Superchargers against the Rockets.

His half-century last time out marked another fine performance and he is fresh from piling on 525 runs in 16 innings for Yorkshire in this year's Twenty20 Blast.

 

Rockets aiming to better eliminator defeat

The Rockets also got their campaign off to a flying start with a six-wicket win over Birmingham Phoenix - the team who finished top of the pile in the regular standings of the men's The Hundred last year.

The Rockets restricted a power-packed Phoenix batting line-up to only 143-7 at Trent Bridge and chased down that total in 97 balls.

The star of the show was opener Alex Hales, who struck five fours and two sixes to finish on 58 after just under an hour at the crease.

Hales complied 374 runs for Nottingham in the T20 Blast earlier this season, but it is fair to say he has lacked consistency at times in the last year, so that will have done his confidence the world of good.

When these sides met last season in their only clash at Trent Bridge, the Rockets came out on top by two wickets with Hales reaching 40 not out.

With that in mind and given how well he has started the new edition of The Hundred, he is a fine top batter bet for Trent Rockets at 11/4.

 

Visitors the right price to secure victory

Trent Rockets will be looking to use the fact they won the only previous meeting between these sides as psychological fuel heading into this match at Headingley.

They were also the better side overall in the inaugural edition of The Hundred, winning five of their eight regular-season matches to reach the eliminator.

They of course lost out to Southern Brave at that stage, but know what it takes to reach the knockout phase and they can boast a formidable opening partnership in Hales and Dawid Malan.

Winning their opener against a Phoenix team expected to be in the mix for the title sent out a serious statement of intent and they are worth backing at 8/11 to follow that up with an away win over the Superchargers.

 

Rashid most likely to inflict damage with the ball

Even if the Rockets do come away with the points, they should be wary of Superchargers leg-spinner Adil Rashid, who bowled tightly against the Originals.

Rashid took the prize scalp of Jos Buttler and conceded only 20 runs off the same number of deliveries.

His tally of nine T20 international wickets for England this year is not sensational, but he is a dangerous bowler in domestic cricket and could be worth backing at 13/5 to be top bowler for the Superchargers on Tuesday.

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