A devastating bowling performance from Trent Rockets saw them thrash Birmingham Phoenix by nine wickets in The Hundred at Edgbaston.
The Rockets rolled the Phoenix for just 64, the joint-second lowest total in the history of the women's competition. Samantha Bates (3-10), on debut in The Hundred, and Georgia Elwiss (3-13) were the chief destroyers, recording combined figures of 6-23 from 40 balls, including 25 dots.
The Rockets were dominant throughout, easily knocking off their target with 69 balls to spare.
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Lauren Filer bowled Beth Mooney for 4 with the score on 40, but she couldn’t halt the Rockets’ charge, Sophia Dunkley racing to 43 not out from 17 balls and Sophie Luff chipping in with three consecutive fours off Alana King.
Asked to bat first by the visitors, Phoenix lost Tammy Beaumont and Alice Capsey early, the former falling to Kim Garth who bowled the opening 10 balls straight through and conceded just two.
Davina Perrin followed soon after, bowled by Elwiss to leave the Phoenix 13-3 after 20 balls and they were soon 14-5 when Bates removed Annerie Dercksen and Jemima Spence in the space of two deliveries.
They lost their sixth wicket one ball later, Kayla Reyneke looking to go big against the leg-spin of Katie Levick only to be spectacularly caught by a diving Bess Heath running in from long-on.
The Aussie pairing of Elysse Perry and King looked to stage a recovery, watchfully moving the score onto 27-6 at the halfway point. But it was short-lived, King edging the 51st delivery of the innings behind to give Garth a second wicket.
Perry then looked to up the ante, striking her international teammate Ash Gardner down the ground for six to move onto 25, but Eva Gray fell trying to repeat the dose against Elwiss, picking out Heath at long-on.
Perry was ultimately the last wicket to fall, becoming Elwiss’ third scalp when she was brilliantly caught in the deep by Emma Jones for 39. No other Phoenix player reached double figures.
Meerkat Match Hero, Samantha Bates, said: “It’s pretty cool to play my first game here with Trent Rockets and get the win on the board. We thought we’d go spin-heavy at Edgbaston and we're glad that it paid off.
“Kimmy [Kim Garth] bowled really well up front. It was nice that I kind of got the reward, but Kimmy really set the tone for us.
“We had a pretty frantic warm-up and I think we should stick to that because we fielded brilliantly out there.”