TR vs MO | David Willey, Rehan Ahmed play stellar roles as Trent Rockets thrash Manchester Originals

‌Trent Rockets continued their stellar run at home in The Hundred Men’s 2025 campaign with a seven-wicket humbling of Manchester Originals at Trent Bridge in Nottingham on Wednesday. Captain David Willey’s excellent new ball spell, along with Rehan Ahmed’s all-round performance, meant the Rockets notched up their fourth win in five matches this year to be second in the points table.

After putting the Originals in, the Rockets’ skipper Willey got his side to an excellent start with the wicket of Ben McKinney in the fourth ball of the game. The left-arm pacer struck again with the last ball of the powerplay to send back dangerman Jos Buttler with the score reading 26/2 at the end of the fielding restrictions. He continued for another set to dismiss Rachin Ravindra, who nicked to the wicketkeeper, for a first-ball duck. Willey finished his 20-ball spell upfront with magical figures of 3/11, including 12 dot balls. After the powerplay, it was Rehan Ahmed’s turn to haunt the visitors as he picked up the prized scalps of skipper Phil Salt and Heinrich Klaasen to put them in a spot of bother at 51/6. However, all-rounder Lewis Gregory’s unbeaten 33 of 21 balls, which included two fours and two sixes, helped the side reach 98/8 at the end of their allotted 100 balls. Meanwhile, Rehan also finished with equally impressive figures of 2/14 in his four sets, while Sam Cook chipped in with two wickets.

The Rockets lost openers Tom Banton and Joe Root within the powerplay to give some hope to the Originals. However, Rehan, who walked in at three, hit back-to-back boundaries of England pacer Josh Tongue as the home side ended the first 25-ball period at 30/2. The spin-bowling all-rounder continued to find boundaries during his unbeaten 35-ball 45 to make light work of the chase as the home side eased to 101/3. He hit five fours and two sixes during his knock, while wicketkeeper-batter Tom Moores came up with an unbeaten cameo of 22 from 13 balls as the Rockets completed the chase with 26 balls to spare. For the Originals, Sonny Baker, Josh Tongue, and Rachin Ravindra all picked up a wicket each.