Glenn Maxwell may have been upstaged by Adam Rossington’s record-breaking knock but he shone brightly enough with bat and ball to help London Spirit maintain their perfect record in The Hundred.
Englishman Rossington took center stage with the competition’s fastest fifty, smashed off just 15 balls, as Spirit made mincemeat of their 144-run target against Northern Superchargers at Headingley on Sunday.
But Australian star Maxwell also played a big part in helping wrap up the seven-wicket win – with 18 balls to spare – as the Lord’s franchise almost certainly wrapped up a place in the knock-out stages already by winning their fourth straight match.
The Victorian cracked an unbeaten 43 off just 25 balls to steer them home after earlier granting just six runs and taking a key wicket off 15 balls in a spell that helped strangle the Superchargers.
They were decisive contributions from the 33-year-old, who’s having to cut his Hundred campaign short after he was included in Australia’s 14-man squad for the ODIs against Zimbabwe and New Zealand.
Maxwell provided Spirit with the ideal start while leg-spinner Mason Crane also shone, taking 2-23 to restrict the Superchargers to 5-143.
The Aussie did most to ensure they only scored 23 off their 25-ball Powerplay, and he got rid of the dangerous Adam Lyth, who miscued his off-spin to mid-on.
He bowled 10 of his 15 deliveries straight through, under the competition’s rules which allow the bowling of consecutive five-ball blocks, making life difficult for the batters from the off.
Chasing the 144 target, Rossington blitzed nine of his first 15 balls for either fours or sixes, roaring to 66 off 25 balls.
It laid the ideal foundation for Maxwell, who smacked six fours and a six as Spirit eased to the target.
In the later game, Will Jacks hammered the highest-ever score in the competition to guide Oval Invincibles to their third straight victory, beating Southern Brave by seven wickets.
Aussie allrounder Marcus Stoinis whacked a quick-fire 37 off 27 balls, with two fours and two sixes, as Brave’s leading scorer in their total of 6-137.
But that was no match for Jacks, who’d struck 81 in his previous game against Welsh Fire, this time thrashing 108no from 48 balls to overtake Will Smeed’s 101 for Birmingham Phoenix four days earlier.
The 23-year-old’s innings included eight sixes and 10 fours as the Invincibles coasted home with 18 deliveries still unused.
Stoinis had earlier cracked Sam Curran for what proved the only two sixes of the innings but once he’d succumbed to Mohammad Hasnain’s first delivery, top-edging into the hands of long-off, it was down to another Aussie Tim David to try to provide a flourish.
Yet he could get the odd destructive shot away, with 22 from his 17 balls.
Jacks was the star of the show, and was particularly harsh on another Aussie, the veteran Michael Hogan, by slamming him for two early sixes, as well as on Stoinis, who went for 27 off the 15 balls he sat down.
With PA.
