Northern Superchargers 156 for 3 (Pooran 66*, Brook 43) beat Manchester Originals 152 for 7 (Salt 61, Santner 3-24) by seven wickets
Pooran – who is enjoying a stellar competition – came in at 29 for 2 with over 100 required and everything to do after Phil Salt drove his Manchester team to an intimidating 156 for 3, and walked off Emirates Old Trafford 62 balls later having kept his team in the competition.
The game looked to be going the way of the hosts on more than one occasion, firstly when Salt took Originals to the biggest-ever powerplay, and latterly in Superchargers’ chase when they required 124 from 60, but Superchargers’ spinners dragged Originals back to keep the chase manageable, and Pooran, Brook and Adam Hose performed heroics with the bat to carry the day.
The Superchargers’ charge continued a theme of top-class batting throughout the day, ably supported by a belter of a pitch at Emirates Old Trafford.
After a similar story in the women’s game, Phil Salt and Max Holden enjoyed the early exchanges – the score at 86 for 2 when Holden was dismissed on the 34th ball – but Superchargers didn’t allow Originals to maintain their lightning scoring rate andm at the interval, they were in the game, albeit with a lot to do.
For Andrew Flintoff’s team, Pooran then did as he has been doing throughout this competition to dispatch bowlers left, right and centre and make the improbable look routine, with support from Brook and Hose – and with it he kept the Superchargers’ hopes alive.
The only bad news for Superchargers – who now need to beat London Spirit at Headingley on Tuesday to progress to the knock-out stages – was Stokes’ injury, which he sustained after running a quick single off the 12th delivery of the second innings.
Meerkat Match Hero Pooran said: “It’s definitely one of my better innings, knowing the situation of the game. Walking into bat with 100+ runs to get, and this format it creeps up on you very fast but I was really happy that I could contribute and be there to the end.
“I knew he struck it well [Adam Hose], but I was just really happy that he is finding some form as well. You don’t win tournaments with just one person contributing. It’s really good when your teammates can contribute and hopefully we can go to our game on Tuesday and fight.
“If we lost the game today we’d be out of the tournament, I’m happy that I can be there to the end, contribute, get the win for the team and hopefully the result will be the same again on Tuesday as well.”