Adam Lyth blitz kills chase as Welsh Fire fizzle out to seventh straight defeat

Adam Lyth continued his impressive form as Northern Superchargers imposed a seventh successive defeat on Welsh Fire at Sophia Gardens.

Having been set just 115 to win, Lyth dispatched Fire's bowlers with ease alongside skipper Faf du Plessis as Superchargers coasted home with nine balls to spare, keeping their faint hopes of reaching the Eliminator alive.

Ben Duckett had earlier hit Fire's first half-century of the tournament in his unbeaten 64 to squeeze them above 100 but openers Lyth and du Plessis were destructive, putting on 75 for the first wicket before both were removed by Ish Sodhi for 47 and 32 respectively.

Having won the toss and opting to bat, Fire struggled in the powerplay once again as the recalled Tom Banton toiled before being caught behind for 6 off Craig Miles and Joe Clarke skied David Wiese to cover for 14. Matt Critchley holed out to deep midwicket for 3 off the bowling of Adil Rashid, who continued his streak of taking a wicket in every match of Superchargers' 2022 season, finishing with 1 for 17.

David Miller's wicket epitomised the season Fire have had, dragging an inside edge onto his stumps for 3 to hand Miles his second wicket, leaving them 53 for 4 after 57 balls.

Duckett has been the only Fire batter to find anything close to consistency in this summer's competition and he rebuilt the innings alongside Leus du Plooy, who made an unbeaten 21 from 15 balls, the pair finally pushing Fire's scoring rate above one run per ball in the 74th after Duckett pulled successive boundaries. He then accelerated to 64 off 48, scoring eight of the side's 11 boundaries.

Superchargers bowled straight lines from wicket-to-wicket, with Miles the most expensive of the bowling attack in his 2 for 30. Wayne Parnell bowled smartly and was unlucky to end wicketless, as was David Willey, whose tight line was difficult to work away.

Lyth got Superchargers off to a blistering start with four boundaries that included a huge six through midwicket, racing to 22 off just nine balls. The opener seemed to be batting on a different pitch to everyone else at Sophia Gardens, picking up six boundaries in the powerplay to push his side to 42 for none, where Fire had managed to reach just 22 for 1.

Du Plessis took a while to get the strike off Lyth but got going eventually to bring his side within 50 runs of their target. Brilliant bowling from Sodhi saw him pick up the wickets of both openers in consecutive sets, removing Lyth caught behind for and du Plessis in the deep for 32 to finish with impressive figures of 2 for 14.

Wiese was run out and Adam Hose bowled by Critchley, but Willey and Harry Brook steadied the ship to ensure Superchargers moved level with Southern Brave before they meet at Headingley on Wednesday. Both teams will rely on other results to stand any chance of progressing to the knockout stages.

Fire will be hoping to avoid losing all eight of their 2022 matches when they travel to title-chasing Trent Rockets on Monday.