From: Ed Mace
Nottingham, 10 August 2026:
Tristan Stubbs hit a brilliant unbeaten 52 as he guided the Southern Brave to a win over the table-leading Trent Rockets at Nottingham on Monday evening.
The Rockets needed a victory to guarantee a bye to the final with Sunrisers Leeds lurking with a superior net run rate and their game to come.
The Brave on the other hand were already eliminated and had lost key man Jofra Archer to injury in what had been a tough campaign.
In a back and forth first innings the Rockets failed to capitalise on any starts. Ben Duckett, Aneurin Donald, Sam Billings and Tim David all fell between 10 and 20 runs having got themselves in. Finn Allen also fell for 23 having taken down debutant Manny Lumsden for two sixes.
Mitch Santner and Lewis Gregory had 40 balls between them to try and push the Rockets towards the average winning score of 155 at Trent Bridge having come together at 92-5.
They made serene progress bringing up their 50 partnership after 32 balls.
The pair finished unbeaten in the end, Santner top scoring with 35 and Gregory on 28 with the Rockets on 158-5.
Chasing a sizeable total, the Brave faced similar problems to the Rockets where it was a struggle to find consistent timing. Jamie Smith reached a well-paced 26 before miscuing off Craig Overton and Moeen Ali struggled to kick on scoring 17 off 14.
It then fell to the international middle order of the Brave to score the majority of the runs. David Miller scored 14 before he was undone by Calvin Harrison who was expensive for his two wickets.
That wicket brought Marcus Stoinis alongside Tristan Stubbs with the towering Australian making an imposing start to his innings. He raced to 16 off his first three deliveries showing great power.
The partnership was held up well by Mitch Santner who bowled cannily, but Stoinis in particular managed to keep finding gaps with extraordinary touch. Stubbs had taken on a more reserved role in this partnership but was still striking at a similar rate after some firm boundaries.
Ben Sanderson bowled well in the latter stages but one failed yorker was pounced on by Stoinis who muscled it down the ground to leave 18 needed from 10.
A huge strike from Tristan Stubbs made it 12 from 9 before Sanderson claimed the wicket of Stoinis who finished on 46 from 25.
Lewis Gregory was tasked with defending 8 from the last five balls but Stubbs had other ideas. A brutal six closed out the encounter bringing up his 50 off 28 balls.
Scores in brief:
Southern Brave Men beat Trent Rockets Men by six wickets
Trent Rockets Men 158-5 (Mitch Santner 35*, Lewis Gregory 28*; Dan Worrall 1-21, Adil Rashid 1-25)
Southern Brave Men 159-5 (Tristan Stubbs 52*, Marcus Stoinis 46; Calvin Harrison 2-32, Craig Overton 1-18)
Player of the match – Tristan Stubbs
