Dawid Malan praised the versatility of Trent Rockets after his side catapulted themselves to first place in The Hundred’s league table with a 29-run win against Welsh Fire at Trent Bridge.

In doing so, the Rockets became the first team to guarantee themselves a spot at Friday’s Eliminator at the Ageas Bowl, with a pass straight through to Saturday’s final should London Spirit fail to beat Birmingham Phoenix and surpass the East Midlands-based outfit on net run rate. 

“Sometimes batting first helps, because you know you want a score but you are able to soak up pressure and take up some time,” Malan said, after the Rockets were inserted by Fire captain Josh Cobb.

“When you are batting second, every dot ball pushes the rate up and creates more pressure.”

Only twice in the opening ten sets did openers Alex Hales and Malan score two or more boundaries, as a pitch used for the third successive double header appeared slow and low. 

Malan, however, appeared the more set of the two, picking George Scrimshaw’s first delivery off his pads for six over square leg, before advancing down the pitch and belting the 45th delivery, bowled by Matt Critchley, for a maximum over long on. 

Those two sixes supplemented seven fours scored by the pair at the halfway stage, at which point the Rockets had 78 runs on the board. 

“We spoke about just hanging in there and whoever had the momentum could go with it,” Malan continued. 

“I had it for the first 20-25 balls, and Halesy got it for the last 15 or so, so it dovetailed nicely. 

“We knew, because we were above par, that if they didn’t get off to a flier in those first 20 balls then we’d be in the game and it proved that way.”

The second half of the Rockets’ innings brought an injection of pace to proceedings, cued, in part, by the dismissal of Hales for 38, after passing 23,000 career runs.

Malan continued unperturbed and brought up his fifty with a lofted cover drive which dropped between Cobb and David Miller, aptly summarising the fortunes of the Welsh outfit in this year’s tournament. 

Two more sixes arrived off the same Ish Sodhi set, the latter off Tom Kohler-Cadmore who fell two balls later, top-edging Scrimshaw to David Payne at deep third. 

Daniel Sams - who finished with 31 from 14 deliveries - picked up the mantle, heaving his first two deliveries over the midwicket boundary before adding an audacious scoop and booming Jake Ball straight into the Radcliffe Round Stand, in the midst of which Malan fell to Critchley for a 37-ball 58. 

Munro added salt to the Welsh wounds, bludgeoning 22 off his 11 ball cameo, 15 of which were off Payne’s penultimate set. 

In reply, Rockets turned the proverbial screw less through wickets but a tight economy rate, albeit the departure of Tom Banton with the ninth ball of the innings did little to help the visitors. 

Through deliveries 23 to 50, Fire managed only two boundaries - one each from Ben Duckett and Matt Critchley - and lost Joe Clarke, whose county teammates Samit Patel and Tom Moores combined to have him stumped. 

“We’ve got a good core of Notts players here, which has helped,” Malan reflected. 

“Even if they haven’t played in the games they’ve been so good around the group in terms of sharing their knowledge and doing the hard yards.

“Credit needs to go to them for creating such a good environment. Guys are willing to share their knowledge. We have a good, open changing room which allows that.”

With half their allocation remaining, the batting side still required 102 runs to win, and three wickets in three consecutive sets further dampened the Fire, as Duckett, Miller and Leus Du Plooy departed to leave their side in the lurch. 

Critchley offered useful runs as the game ebbed to an inevitable conclusion, finishing unbeaten on 54 from 34 deliveries, while Tabraiz Shamsi finished the pick of the bowlers with 2-12 from his 20 balls.