Bryony Smith had two reasons to ensure Trent Rockets completed their home campaign with a flourish – to enthral the vociferous home support, and to give Katherine Sciver-Brunt the perfect send-off.

Opener Smith notched up a second successive Match Hero award after her 64 from 40 balls helped the Rockets to post 134/6 from 100 balls.

Birmingham Phoenix ultimately fell three runs short, in front of a record crowd for a women’s fixture at Trent Bridge in The Hundred of 10,350.

“Playing in front of the crowds here at Trent Bridge here has been awesome,” she said.

“It’s obviously our last home game in front of this crowd and our last game with Katherine here, so we wanted to make it count and fortunately we did.

“We said before our last game here on Thursday that we had three games left and if we could get three wins we would put ourselves in a good position, so it keeps us in the hunt.”

Smith was given the responsibility of bowling the final five balls of the run chase, with Phoenix needing 11 from the last set of deliveries.

Having conceded a four from her first ball, Smith restricted Sterre Kallis to three from the final four deliveries, securing the spoils for her side.

“I have bowled at the death before – I didn’t really expect to do today but thankfully it worked out well,” she said.

“It got a little bit nervy at the end, but that sums up the whole competition.

“No game has been easy because you are never out of it with the bat, but it was good for us to come out on the right side of a really close game going into our last fixture in the group stage.”

The half-century was Smith’s second in this year’s competition, having also hit a quickfire 48 from 21 deliveries against Welsh Fire.

And the right-hander confirmed that she was satisfied with her returns.

“I’m really pleased with the way it has gone,” she said.

“I feel like in the last two years in The Hundred I haven’t been consistent enough with the bat, so this year it has been nice to consistently get some runs on the board – and to have done it the way I have done it too, by being really positive.”