Sciver-Brunt fifty takes Rockets over the line

Trent Rockets concluded their campaign with a third successive win, Nat Sciver-Brunt's third half-century of the competition setting up a nervy three-wicket victory over Birmingham Phoenix to nudge her team up to fourth in the table.

Sciver-Brunt finished as the leading run-scorer in last summer's women's competition and the England skipper's thrilling innings of 52 from 29 balls at Trent Bridge moved her up to second place in this season's batting charts, behind Meg Lanning of Oval Invincibles.

After the Rockets had been set 124 for victory, Em Arlott clean bowled the dangerous Bryony Smith for 10 with a superb slower yorker but Sciver-Brunt was quickly into her stride, sharing a second-wicket stand of 46 with Grace Scrivens (16) before Scrivens holed out to Arlott off the impressive Phoebe Brett.

Ash Gardner struck two quick boundaries before falling to Megan Schutt via a stunning catch in the deep by Ailsa Lister and the Rockets threatened to implode when Sciver-Brunt chipped to extra cover off Hannah Baker immediately after bringing up her fifty and Brett dismissed Heather Graham and Ellie Threlkeld in the space of four deliveries, the young left-arm spinner finishing with figures of 3-19 as the hosts slipped to 109-6.

Alana King made a crucial 9 to settle the nerves a little and when she edged behind off Schutt (2-24), courtesy of a superb catch from Amy Jones, it was left to Jodi Grewcock to hit the winning boundary with three balls to spare, securing a first home win of the season for the Rockets.

Earlier, Emma Lamb's second half-century of the competition had steered the Phoenix to 123-6, the England opener batting through the innings to finish unbeaten on 56 from 42.

It was tough work at times for Lamb, who struck five boundaries, but she played judiciously as the Rockets' high-class spin triumvirate of Kirstie Gordon (2-24), King (1-21) and Gardner (1-18) served up very few loose deliveries.

Ellyse Perry (14), Marie Kelly (14) and Lister (12 off 6) played useful cameos to help push the visitors up to a competitive target but ultimately it wasn't enough to prevent them slipping to a sixth defeat in eight.

Sciver-Brunt, the Meerkat Match Hero, said: "I would have liked to be there at the end and made it a bit calmer for everybody but it wasn't to be. In the three games I have made runs that's not been the case, so that's something to think about in future.

"As a batting group, we've always said if we can get ahead of the game, try and stay ahead of the game. That was the tempo I wanted to go at. Getting out at that point, had we not been ahead of the game as we were, it probably would have been even more stressful.

"It's always nice to win at your home ground in front of your home fans and we haven't been able to do that until today. The wicket is quite specific, it's quite slow, and we probably didn't adapt to that as quickly as we wanted to."