Trent Rockets dominate Lord's final to claim first Women's Hundred crown

Trent Rockets lived up to their billing as title favourites by demolishing Sunrisers Leeds in the Women's Hundred final at Lord's on Sunday, 16 August. Winning seven of their eight league games, Rockets put on a show in the summit clash by bundling out their opponents for a paltry 91 before hunting it down easily with 46 balls remaining to clinch the title for the first time.

Sunrisers collapse after bright start

Phoebe Litchfield appeared to give Sunrisers a great start in the final when she smashed Samantha Bates for a four and a six at the start of her innings. The momentum was quickly lost as Bryony Smith and Lauren Winfield-Hill were dismissed off successive deliveries by Kim Garth and Litchfield didn't last long either as the defending champions were reduced to 24 for 3.

Annabel Sutherland and Deepti Sharma then stemmed the rot and built a decent stand to revive Sunrisers with a crucial 32-run partnership. Once Deepti got castled, the floodgates opened again. Four balls after the Indian allrounder's departure, Georgia Adams bagged the big wicket of Sutherland who advanced down the ground and missed the ball completely, only to get stumped. To make matters worse, Jess Jonassen got run out for a duck three deliveries later.

The procession continued as Danielle Gibson did her bit to push the score towards the three-figure mark by finding the boundary on four occasions, but Rockets kept making inroads and eventually bowled Sunrisers out for just 91. Georgia Adams finished with 2 for 9 and Charley Phillips took 2 for 12.

Rockets chase with ease

In contrast, the Rockets' openers got off to a terrific start to put the game to bed early. Sophia Dunkley hammered one from Kate Cross over the deep midwicket fence before nailing the slog sweep against Jonassen for the same result. Beth Mooney then got going with back-to-back boundaries off Cassidy McCarthy.

The two batters then fetched a boundary each off Cross and in a matter of 25 deliveries almost half the target was wiped out. The leg-spin of Hannah Baker, who was player of the match in the Eliminator, didn't help either as Mooney cut one past backward point to bring up the half-century stand. Three balls later, it was Dunkley's turn to hammer the same bowler over covers just before the timeout.

Gibson was introduced into the attack to finally break the partnership but by that time 69 runs were erased from the target. While Rockets also lost Nat Sciver-Brunt immediately, Mooney and Ashleigh Gardner got the job done with ease.

Brief scores: Sunrisers Leeds 91 in 91 balls (Annabel Sutherland 25; Georgia Adams 2-9, Charley Phillips 2-12) lost to Trent Rockets 92 for 2 in 54 balls (Sophia Dunkley 41, Beth Mooney 31*) by 8 wickets.