Rehan Ahmed, Tymal Mills arrange emphatic victory for Southern Brave
Southern Brave 120 for six (Garton 28) beat Birmingham Phoenix 119 for 8 (Mills 3-20, Rehan 3-22) by 4 wickets
Rehan Ahmed celebrated his England T20I call-up with a spell of three for 22 as Southern Brave cruised to a four-wicket victory over Birmingham Phoenix.
Teenage leg-spinner Rehan, who’s the youngest male cricketer to play all three codecs for England, bamboozled Phoenix by the center units, whereas the left-arm fast Tymal Mills starred on the dying with three for 20 to limit the guests to an under-par 119 for eight.
George Garton top-scored with 28 as Southern Brave bought forward of the speed early and reached their goal with six balls to spare.
Brave climb to second within the desk to spice up their possibilities of reaching the playoffs while Phoenix stay backside with development wanting unlikely.
Phoenix captain Moeen Ali elected to bat first and Will Smeed began quick, placing three boundaries off Garton and Craig Overton’s opening finish. Moeen’s fellow Ashes star Ben Duckett quickly joined the enjoyable placing boundaries with a reduce, flick and a ramp.
Smeed crashed two wonderful drives by the off facet for 4, and had a life when he was put down by Tim David within the deep, however his luck ran out when he was overwhelmed by the additional tempo of Mills and top-edged a pull to Leus du Plooy to depart the Phoenix 40 for one after the powerplay.
Brave captain James Vince turned to spin and was vindicated as Rehan trapped Jamie Smith lbw earlier than bowling Duckett round his legs with a disguised googly.
Off-spinner Colin Ackermann picked up the prize scalp of Moeen with a jaffa as each spinners dominated, bowling back-to-back 10-ball units.
Rehan picked up his third wicket after Dan Mousley overbalanced to a leg-side supply and was well stumped by Devon Conway.
Livingstone was dropped within the deep and threatened to make Brave pay when he dispatched Rehan and Mills for sixes, nonetheless he quickly edged behind off Mills.
In the ultimate finish Benny Howell fell to a Jordan slower ball and Chris Woakes holed out to long-off as Mills picked up his third wicket and Phoenix might solely muster 119 for eight.
Finn Allen set about making mild work of the goal, placing Woakes over extra-cover, earlier than launching fellow New Zealander Adam Milne for a six over long-on, and hitting Woakes for consecutive boundaries over his head.
Allen fell quickly after when he might solely glove an tried ramp off Kane Richardson to Smith.
Vince labored a Richardson in-swinger behind sq. for 4 off his first supply, earlier than assertively pulling Woakes to the boundary. However, the Brave’s captain was bowled after advancing down the pitch to an Ali supply that spun between bat and pad.
Devon Conway was run out after a combination up, nonetheless a quickfire partnership of 44 between Garton and Du Plooy put the Brave firmly in management.
Garton fell after looping a catch to level, David holed out to cow nook and Du Plooy was trapped lbw with out addition throughout six dot-balls, earlier than Brave stumbled over the road for a significant victory.