Finals Day at Lord's: Trent Rockets Play Twice, and Could Win Twice
Both Hundred finals are at Lord's on Sunday, and the same club is in both of them. Trent Rockets topped each group stage and now meet Sunrisers Leeds in the women's final and Manchester Super Giants in the men's.
The Hundred ends today at Lord's, with both finals on the same ground on the same afternoon, and one franchise involved in each.
The two finals
The women's final is Trent Rockets against Sunrisers Leeds. The men's final is Trent Rockets against Manchester Super Giants.
Trent Rockets finished top of the group stage in both competitions, which is why they have spent the last two days waiting while everybody else played an eliminator to reach them.
How the challengers got here
Sunrisers Leeds reached the women's final by chasing down a modest 115 against Southern Brave with 11 balls to spare, winning by five wickets. That result ended the strangest season of any side in the competition: Southern Brave won their first five matches and looked comfortably the best team in it, then lost their way through the closing fortnight and went out in a low chase.
Manchester Super Giants reached the men's final by beating Sunrisers Leeds by 20 runs at The Oval, making 186 for 4 and holding Leeds to 166 for 7.
What each side brings
The Super Giants arrive with the batter who, ten days ago and in this tournament, became T20 cricket's leading run scorer. Jos Buttler passed Kieron Pollard with 51 from 20 balls at Manchester, and he did it in 224 fewer matches than the man he overtook.
Trent Rockets arrive having simply been the most consistent side in the competition from start to finish. We noted when they first pulled clear that they were winning in both competitions while the attention went elsewhere, and nothing in the fortnight since changed it.
The thing worth watching
A single club winning both finals on the same day would be a first worth marking, and it is genuinely available today rather than a statistical curiosity.
For a competition that has spent five seasons being argued over, a finals day where one team can sweep both titles and the men's final features the leading run scorer in the format's history is a reasonable answer to most of the arguments.