At Headingley, Jamie Overton scored an outstanding 83 to lead the Manchester Originals to a commanding 40-run victory over the Northern Superchargers.
Usama Mir, a Pakistani professional bowler who took four for 19, provided some outstanding spin bowling in support of Overton’s first T20 fifty, which featured nine fours and six sixes.
Reece Topley, an English left-armer who finished with three for 29, battled with the new ball as the Originals lost skipper Jos Buttler and fellow opener Phil Salt in his first 10 deliveries. However, Overton’s relentless hitting prevented them from moving the ball forward.
Although Originals’ total of 182 proved to be considerably more than the Leeds-based club could handle, Superchargers did provide brief spurts of resistance in their pursuit through Matthew Short and Saif Zaib.
The Superchargers lost at home for the second time in three days, but they still maintained second place in the standings, while the Originals moved up from seventh to fourth.
After winning the toss and choosing to bat, Originals had a disastrous start when Topley dismissed Salt after only three balls because Salt mistimed his stroke and found Zaib at point. He then substituted skipper Buttler for the Originals, who had just edged a delivery into Tom Banton’s palms.
Then, the Originals bounced back thanks to some strong hitting from Laurie Evans, which included a wonderful scoop shot for six off David Wiese’s bowling.
The Superchargers responded with two wickets in two deliveries after the game was trimmed to 90 balls each side due to a weather delay.
First, Adil Rashid struck with his first pitch to dismiss the dangerous Evans for 41 off 19 pitches as he skied a Brydon Carse delivery to a running Callum Parkinson at deep third for 22 runs.
Before the Originals lost the wickets of the foreign pair Ashton Turner and Mir to Parkinson and Topley, respectively, Overton came in at six and smacked a Rashid delivery over the long-on boundary for six.
Then, in a partnership of 72 runs with Tom Hartley, the Overton massacre started. Of those runs, 62 came from the Surrey man’s blade, including a superb six off a Carse short ball that soared into the Western Terrace.
Then, to hurt the statistics of the tournament’s leading wicket-taker, Overton struck the remarkable Topley’s final set for 20, which included two fours and two sixes. The all-rounder went on to hit 16 off the last set of the Originals’ innings to help them to a total of 182 for six, finishing the game unbeaten on 83 from 30 balls.
With only 18 runs coming from the first 15 balls in their reply, Superchargers got off to a poor start.
When Australian Short pulled a short pitch from former Superchargers player Ben Raine over the ropes, he hit the game’s first six runs. The opener then hammered a picture-perfect cover drive for six before being dismissed for 37 off 16 deliveries by the mystic Mir.
After trying to hit the boundary with a reverse sweep but failing to do so, Adam Hose was dismissed by Mir two balls later. Banton, who was in good form, had been bowled for 12 and had been caught at backward point.
Harry Brook of England had a good 20 points, including a six over the Rugby stand similar to Liam Livingstone’s against Pakistan in 2021, but after he holed out to long-off, he became Mir’s fourth victim.
The only two Superchargers that continued to put up a fight were Zaib and Wayne Parnell. The Superchargers were reduced to 141 for nine when the rest of the batting order cheaply left the game, giving the Originals a 40-run victory.