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Last month, explosive England opener Alex Hales said he was ready to make a return to the national cricket team and hoped to have a conversation regarding his future in the international arena. Though there hasn’t been any news concerning that, but Hales has given English selectors a timely reminder of his abilities with an unbeaten century in the ongoing T20 Blast 2021.
While playing for Nottinghamshire, the right-handed batsman carried his bat with an unbeaten 101 off 66 deliveries against Lancashire at Trent Bridge in Nottingham on Saturday. The 32-year-old smashed 12 fours and 4 sixes during his phenomenal batting display.
The destructive knock by Hales helped Nottinghamshire to post 173/6 in their allotted 20 overs. The next-best came from skipper Steven Mullaney‘s willow, scoring a 16-ball 25 as the rest of the batters struggled to stay in the middle for a longer time.
For Lancashire, Saqib Mahmood was the pick of the bowlers. He bagged a couple of scalps for 35 runs in his quota of 4 overs.
The official Twitter handle of Vitality Blast shared the highlights of Hales’ spectacular batting masterclass.
Here is the video:
Watch the highlights from @AlexHales1's #Blast21 batting masterclass against Lancashire Lightning 👏 pic.twitter.com/yW4JWzBq5G
— Vitality Blast (@VitalityBlast) June 27, 2021
Nottinghamshire rises to the second spot in North Group
When it comes to the chase, Lancashire lost wickets at regular intervals, but a half-century stand for the seventh wicket between Steven Croft (41) and Luke Wood (33 no) took the game down to the wire.
However, when the Dane Vilas-led side needed 20 from 9 balls, a well-set Steven Croft was sent back to the hut by Jake Ball, ending Lancashire’s hopes as they eventually fell short by seven runs.
The thrilling victory has taken Nottinghamshire to the second spot on the points table in the North Group. It was their fifth triumph out of a total of nine matches. The leader of the table are Yorkshire, with six wins out of nine games.
Brief scores: Nottinghamshire 173/6 in 20 overs (Alex Hales 101*; Saqib Mahmood 2/35) beat Lancashire 166/7 in 20 overs (Steven Croft 41, Alex Davies 39; Matthew Carter 3/17) by seven runs.
