India’s Jemimah Rodrigues struck her second successive fifty in the Hundred as the Northern Superchargers defeated the Trent Rockets by 28 runs on Monday.
The opener top-scored with a 41-ball 60 — including 10 fours — in a total of 149-7, the highest in the women’s competition so far, despite Australian seamer Sammy-Jo Johnson taking 4-15 for the Rockets.
Rodrigues and England’s Lauren Winfield-Hill shared an opening stand of 64 in a match that took place at Trent Bridge, Nottingham — the venue for next week’s first Test between the England and India men’s teams.
Yet it might have been a different story had the Rockets reviewed after Rodrigues, facing her first ball of the match, survived a strong lbw appeal from England’s Katherine Brunt.
In reply, the Rockets could only manage 122-7 from their 100 balls, with Brunt, best known as a fast bowler, making an unbeaten 43 batting at number four.
Only two days earlier the 20-year-old Rodrigues had hit a sparkling 92 not out in the Superchargers’ six-wicket win over the Welsh Fire at Headingley.
The Hundred, a new 100 balls per side format, features eight newly created teams, all with men’s and women’s XIs.
Many within English cricket fear it could ‘cannibalise’ existing domestic competitions within the men’s 18 first-class county set-up, but the England and Wales Cricket Board are convinced it is the best way to attract a new audience to the sport and boost the women’s game.