Bryony Smith admitted relief in finding form with the bat after anchoring the Outlaws to an 18-run victory over London Spirit, with a 44-ball 63 at Trent Bridge.
Batting first, the home side posted 142/4 off their 100 deliveries, with Smith backed up primarily by skipper Nat Sciver, who celebrated her 30th birthday by making an unbeaten 42 as well as taking two wickets in two balls.
“Finally, some runs,” Smith joked.
“We’ve always had no panic that the batting would fire. Our bowling has been pretty good all the way through, although that was probably our worst bowling performance if you’re going to look at it harshly, so it shows the importance of runs on the board.
“I’ve been happy with the way I’ve been bowling, so it is nice to be able to contribute with the bat as well. I pride myself on being able to clear the ropes and I was able to get a couple away today.
“I found it quite tough up front, it was difficult to time the ball, but it just shows that the longer you bat the easier it becomes,” she added, reflecting on the time it took her to hit her straps.
“Those partnerships, first with Elyse (Villani) and then with Nat, got us up to a decent score. Elyse took a bit of pressure off me in the powerplay, enabling me to settle in a bit more.”
Spirit, already effectively out of contention after three defeats in three, were always off the pace in the chase, despite Naomi Dattani’s unbeaten 38 off 34 and New Zealand all-rounder Amelia Kerr’s 26 off 19.
After failing to post a score bigger than 119 in their opening three matches, Rockets remedied that handsomely after Spirit had put them in, overtaking that mark with 16 balls in hand, moments after Smith had gone to her maiden fifty in the competition.
Villani set the precedent with three inventive boundaries in the opening blows - two scoops and a reverse sweep - before driving exquisitely through extra cover.
When she was owled by Amelia Kerr attempting to cut the 30th ball of the innings, the Rockets had 40 on the board, 37 of which were from the powerplay.
After the Australian’s demise, the flow of boundaries was stemmed for 15 balls until Smith started to find her range with fours in quick succession.
Sciver was largely a spectator at this point, but once she had a chance to weigh up the pitch she took Danielle Gibson for three in a row, starting with two deft laps before profiting from a misfield at midwicket.
With fifty in the bag from 39 balls, Smith went for broke, her power clearing the rope for maximums to the straight boundary off Gibson and Charlie Dean as the skipper conceded 14 in her last set of five.
“Myself and Nat spoke in the middle about at what point we should kick on,” Smith reflected.
“We brought the death period forward because we had wickets in the shed. We spoke about communication last night in our meeting and that definitely happened today.
“Nat is such a calm head to have in the middle both with bat and ball.”
Eventually, Smith holed out to deep midwicket and Sciver skyed one to long-on, with Mignon du Preez run out in between as three wickets fell in eight balls at the death, but Spirit faced a challenge nonetheless.
In reply, Spirit lost number two ranked IT20 batter Beth Mooney and all-rounder Alice Monaghan in consecutive balls - the 18th and 19th - as Nat Sciver picked up her fourth and fifth wickets of the competition.
And Alana King kept the pressure on, trapping Grace Scrivens lbw with her second ball and conceding just one run off her first set, having conceded none off her final 10 deliveries against Birmingham Phoenix.
By the time the visitors past the halfway point in their innings - with 88 still required - Naomi Dattani and Kerr were tasked with the rebuilding job, and over 10,100 had entered Trent Bridge to cheer their team on, breaking the record for the highest attendance for a domestic women’s fixture at the ground.
Kerr later departed, missing a sweep off Sarah Glenn to depart leg before, whilst Dattani was left ploughing a lone furrow as Smith capped her day with a wicket when Gibson was caught short fine leg and Sophie Luff holed out to extra cover.