Australian all-rounder Marcus Stoinis played a crucial role in Trent Rockets' first home win of the ongoing season of the Hundred, not with the bat, essentially, but with the ball. Stoinis was on a hat-trick at one point after taking two wickets in two balls but ended up giving away zero runs in the only set he bowled against the Northern Superchargers at Trent Bridge on Sunday (August 10) evening.
It was the 33rd instance in T20 cricket when a player accounted for a minimum of a couple of wickets in an innings, without giving a single run. Along with Stoinis, 25 of them have taken two wickets, while eight of them went on to dismiss three batters of the opposition and not leaking a single run. Lockie Ferguson, who is Stoinis' teammate at the Rockets, famously did it at the T20 World Cup last year, while bowling all four overs maiden against Papua New Guinea.
Stoinis found himself on the list alongside the likes of Suresh Raina, Imran Tahir, Roelof van der Merwe, Atharva Taide, Joe Denly, Andrew Ellis and Saad Bin Zafar, among others to take two wickets in a spell in an innings in a T20 match, without conceding a single run but became the first one to do it in the Hundred.
Stoinis broke the crucial partnership between Harry Brook and Graham Clark by dismissing the Superchargers' skipper, followed by Imad Wasim in consecutive balls. Stoinis kept full and straight on the hat-trick ball, but Tom Lawes put it out to deny the Australian all-rounder a fantastic feat. Stoinis bowled the last ball of his five dot as well, but didn't get to bowl in the rest of the innings.
Mohammad Amir helped the Superchargers cross the 120 mark with a couple of lusty blows in the end but the Rockets were always the favourites with the batting line-up they had. Imad Wasim and Adil Rashid did pick up a couple of late wickets to delay the inevitable, but the Rockets were never not going to chase the total. It got a lot closer than they would have liked but the 2022 men's champions got home to their second consecutive win of the season.
