Anderson and Buttler star as Originals beat Superchargers

Headingley, The Hundred Men’s Competition

Northern Superchargers 139-8 (100 balls): Patel 42 (19), Aspinwall 3-17

Manchester Originals 140-3 (84 balls): Buttler 70 (37), Ravindra 47* (23)

Seven wickets for originals won.

As Manchester Originals defeated local rivals Northern Superchargers 7-wicket, England legends James Anderson and Jos Buttler made a dominant debut.

In a stellar 10-ball opening inning, Anderson, who had missed the previous five games to the Originals, took his first two wickets for 139-8 against Headingley.

On a slightly sticky surface, the chase appeared to be potentially challenging, but Buttler and Originals made a run for it once more with 16 balls left.

The former England captain bludgeoned seven fours and five towering sixes before falling with just 10 runs needed after making his fifty from 27 balls.

Rachin Ravindra, who finished with a pair of thumping boundaries from the end of his 99-run stand, more than doubled his role.

Without Samit Patel’s outstanding comeo as Superchargers all-rounder, it would have been an even simpler victory for Originals.

With one more ball left in the innings, the seasoned former Englandman blasted 42 from 19 balls, including three sixes, before falling to the impressive Tom Aspinwall.

The shorter formats were once referred to as a “young man’s game.”

In the first innings, two 40-somethings were the ones to take the lead, in fact, at Headingley tonight.

Anderson, 43, started it off. After a tidy first five balls, England’s legendary swing king was asked to bowl five more and struck twice before taking the new ball.

Dawid Malan, a left-hander for another in-swinger, skied the out-swinger Anderson sent down before the first got him, allowing Buttler to emerge from behind the stumps and take the catch.

His second wicket, a nip-backer that caught Dan Lawrence on the crease and was awarded lbw, was much more similar to it than Anderson’s typical caught-behind dismissal.

Harry Brook and David Miller, the two lucky batters, showed Anderson can still have problems for some of the best players in the world, leading to Anderson’s four-for catches.

After the second drop, when Patel hammered him over the square leg for six, his figures of 2 to 30 were dented.

By that point, Ish Sodhi had already beaten the 40-year-old into the stands thanks to his flawless timing, which almost every other Superchargers batter had failed on a inning.

Not bad for a man who admitted to being anxious before his late call-up to The Hundred because he had been “sitting on a beach in Alicante.”

In Nottingham, Trent Rockets host Birmingham Phoenix on the final day of the group stage.

At 15:00 BST, the women’s game begins, followed by the men’s match at 18:30 BST, at Trent Bridge.