Nat Sciver-Brunt vowed to give the Trent Bridge crowd more to cheer in Trent Rockets’ upcoming home fixtures, after a valiant conclusion to their run-chase ultimately ended in defeat to Birmingham Phoenix.
The England all-rounder reached 50 from 33 balls, and threatened to turn the tide in the hosts’ favour with three consecutive fours off Hannah Baker.
After her departure for 59, Heather Graham found the fence on five occasions to keep the Rockets in the contest, but could only muster two from the final delivery with six needed.
“We did a lot of things right, but didn’t quite carry that through all the way,” reflected The Blaze’s Sciver-Brunt.
“In the first half of our bowling innings, we were really good, and then we probably let them get a few too many – although I thought the score was about par.
“Then we probably didn’t take the positive option early enough in the chase, and left ourselves with a bit too much to do.”
Despite the defeat, Sciver-Brunt’s consecutive fours had the Trent Rockets faithful purring – as did Graham’s late-innings assault.
“The crowds are great here, they always get into the games,” said Sciver-Brunt.
“They also seem to love it when you run a hard-run two!
“The wicket was really good today, and I felt pretty good out there – better than I did in my last two innings (at Headingley and Old Trafford), which felt pretty tough at times.
“We’ve got another game at home this weekend (a sell-out on Saturday against Welsh Fire), which we’re all looking forward to, and hopefully we’ll put on a better show for the crowd.”
With Sciver-Brunt and opener Bryony Smith facing over half of Trent Rockets’ deliveries between them during the chase, the side’s lower order had a limited opportunity to impress.
But the 31-year-old feels they are primed to take that chance when it is presented.
“We haven’t shown it yet, but we’ve got a lot of depth in our batting line-up,” she said.
“Not everyone’s had an extended opportunity to bat, but the people we’ve got waiting in the shed are really exciting.
“There’s no reason not to be positive overall – it’s just a couple of things here and there that we need to work on, and we’ll be good to go.”
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Tickets for Trent Rockets' final two fixtures of the summer at Trent Bridge are on sale now.