The Hundred: Rockets Pull Clear in Both Competitions
Trent Rockets won twice again on Wednesday, their men now five wins from six and their women all but through to the knockouts. Welsh Fire's women kept their own hopes alive with a three wicket win built on four cheap wickets.
Two double headers on 5 August, and by the end of them one franchise had separated itself from the rest of the competition in both the men's and women's tables.
The men at Nottingham
Trent Rockets beat Birmingham Phoenix by seven wickets. Phoenix were held to 111 for 6, with Joe Clarke making 62 of them, which tells you how little support he had. Lewis Gregory took 2 for 20. The Rockets got there at 116 for 3.
That is a fifth win in six matches and it puts them clear at the top of the men's competition.
The men at Manchester
The other men's match produced the record that overshadowed everything else. Manchester Super Giants chased down Welsh Fire's 155 for 4 with 31 balls to spare, winning by nine wickets, and Jos Buttler's unbeaten 51 from 20 balls took him past Kieron Pollard as T20 cricket's leading run scorer.
Tim Seifert finished 62 not out alongside him. For the Super Giants it snapped a losing streak; for Welsh Fire, Matthew Short's 71 and Phil Salt's 48 were nowhere near enough.
The women at Nottingham
Trent Rockets beat Birmingham Phoenix by six wickets, chasing 123 and reaching 124 for 4. Sophia Dunkley's 65 from 37 balls was the innings of the night and settled the result well before the end.
The Rockets are now all but through to the knockout stage.
The women at Manchester
The tighter, stranger game. Manchester Super Giants were bowled out for 85 for 9, undone by Orla Prendergast, who took 4 for 18 and removed three of the top four inside the first 15 balls she bowled. Welsh Fire still made hard work of it, getting home at 88 for 7 with three wickets standing.
A chase of 86 that goes to the seventh wicket is not a comfortable night, but it keeps Welsh Fire's qualification hopes alive, which was the point.
Where this leaves the run-in
Only the top three in each competition reach the knockouts. The eliminator is on 14 August at The Oval and the final at Lord's on 16 August, so there is a little over a week of group cricket left.
Trent Rockets look secure in both. Behind them, in the women's competition especially, the difference between third and fourth is now the difference between a season and a footnote, and Welsh Fire have just given themselves a say in it.