Northern Superchargers 116 for 4 (Lyth 47, du Plessis 32) beat Welsh Fire 114 for 4 (Duckett 64*) by six wickets
Having been set just 115 to win, Lyth dispatched Fire’s bowlers with ease alongside skipper Faf du Plessis as Superchargers coasted home with nine balls to spare, keeping their faint hopes of reaching the Eliminator alive.
David Miller’s wicket epitomised the season Fire have had, dragging an inside edge onto his stumps for 3 to hand Miles his second wicket, leaving them 53 for 4 after 57 balls.
Superchargers bowled straight lines from wicket-to-wicket, with Miles the most expensive of the bowling attack in his 2 for 30. Wayne Parnell bowled smartly and was unlucky to end wicketless, as was David Willey, whose tight line was difficult to work away.
Lyth got Superchargers off to a blistering start with four boundaries that included a huge six through midwicket, racing to 22 off just nine balls. The opener seemed to be batting on a different pitch to everyone else at Sophia Gardens, picking up six boundaries in the powerplay to push his side to 42 for none, where Fire had managed to reach just 22 for 1.
Du Plessis took a while to get the strike off Lyth but got going eventually to bring his side within 50 runs of their target. Brilliant bowling from Sodhi saw him pick up the wickets of both openers in consecutive sets, removing Lyth caught behind for and du Plessis in the deep for 32 to finish with impressive figures of 2 for 14.
Wiese was run out and Adam Hose bowled by Critchley, but Willey and Harry Brook steadied the ship to ensure Superchargers moved level with Southern Brave before they meet at Headingley on Wednesday. Both teams will rely on other results to stand any chance of progressing to the knockout stages.
Fire will be hoping to avoid losing all eight of their 2022 matches when they travel to title-chasing Trent Rockets on Monday.