NT Strike star batter Jordan Silk has led a superb victory over HH Kingsmen on Monday.
The Sydney Sixers mainstay scored a brilliant half century of 67 off 46 balls to lift the NT to a strong total of 5-164 at DXC Arena.
After being in some early trouble at 3-45, Silk alongside all-rounder Will Blair (30 off 31 deliveries) piled on 95 runs for the fourth-wicket partnership.
In a game of ever-changing momentum swings, NT ended up claiming the win by 12 runs to rise to a 2-1 record.
Kingsmen No.7 Ali Sheikh struck NT spinner Matt Hammond for three sixes in the second-last over to make it 26 runs required from the final over.
But NT Strike fast bowler Tom Menzies (0-38) slowed the game, restricting the Kingsmen to 13 runs in the final over.
Menzies credited Silk and Blair for their contributions early, which helped set up the win.
"It was a very good win, very satisfying in the end," Menzies told ntcricket.com.au. "Batting first, bit of a collapse early but the way Silky (Jordan Silk) and Blairey (Will Blair) batted got us to a good total.
"They batted time and gave us a chance at the end to make some runs. And then defending was very good. "We stuck to our plans, and I thought we bowled very well, and we got the win."
Milind Kumar took 3-18 for the Kingsmen.
Kingsmen openers Shayan Jahangir (43 off 34 balls) and Tayyab Arif (39 off 28 balls) got off to flying starts with the bat. But the Kingsmen lost 5-20 after being 0-73.
Nightcliff fast bowler Trent McVeigh took 3-22 while D’Arcy Short was influential with an economical 0-21 off four overs.
Menzies was enjoying playing with the experienced Silk, Short and Wes Agar.
"Having those two boys and Wes is awesome," he said. "They have all played Big Bash for years and just getting to pick their brains.
"It's been very good and I've learnt so much, and I'm sure all the other boys are as well.
"Obviously we've got a young team with some experienced heads too. We'll see how far we can go in this tournament and play as much cricket as we can."
NT faces ACT Comets in its next game at DXC Arena No 2 on Tuesday.
See the full Study NT Top End T20 Series fixtures and results here.