Superchargers ride on Crawley blitz to beat Welsh Fire courtesy of England opener’s 29-ball, stroke-filled half-century.
At Headingley, Andrew Flintoff’s Northern Superchargers easily defeated Welsh Fire by eight wickets thanks to a brilliant performance from Zak Crawley, who scored an undefeated 67.
After the women’s team’s victory earlier in the day, the England player led the Superchargers to a pair of home victories on their first matchday of the Hundred with five fours and four sixes during his aggressive 37-ball spell at the bat.
Following a game in which Jonny Bairstow and Steve Smith put on 62 for the first wicket for Welsh Fire, Crawley hit the winning runs at the end with the help of skipper and another England player Harry Brook.
Before Smith was bowled by Matthew Potts and the Fire innings started to lose steam, the two were jeered as they made their way to the crease, but they appeared to be getting even with their supporters.
With 11 balls remaining, Crawley, David Malan (41) and Brook (25*) easily defeated Fire, who battled their way to 143 for 9 from their 100 balls.
Crawley said: “I loved it. The boys are great, and coming here with Freddie [Flintoff] – the guy’s a legend. It’s a great place to play your cricket and an awesome wicket to bat on, so I loved it.
“It felt a really good wicket for us to bat on and the outfield was rapid so the game-plan for us was to play strong shots, and it came off. The boys kept them to a really good total with the ball, and we felt like we could chase that and it was a good performance.
“I felt like me and Dawid complemented each other quite nicely, we hit in different areas, so that was good. And obviously the skipper came in and does what he does. He’s a proper player so that made it easy for me at the end.
“The bowlers got us off to a great start. They’ve got a couple of top players at the top for them but we managed to take regular wickets, which is what we talked about before the game, and the boys did brilliantly to keep them to 140-odd and that was very chaseable.”