Top of the table Southern Brave continued their unbeaten start to this year’s women’s competition in The Hundred and guaranteed themselves a top-three finish with a nervy penultimate-ball victory over a spirited Welsh Fire.
Needing six runs from the final five, Mady Villiers was run out coming back for two from the first delivery of the set before Georgia Adams was almost brilliantly caught in the deep as she and Rhianna Southby scampered back for two and got the Brave over the line with a ball to spare.
Put into bat, Welsh Fire lost the big wicket of Hayley Matthews (0) early, the West Indian falling lbw to Sophie Devine (2-23) for a first-ball duck but Sophia Dunkley (31 off 25) looked to be continuing her form from The Kia Oval on Saturday, starting brightly and hitting four commanding boundaries.
The Brave made another important strike when Lauren Bell had Tammy Beaumont brilliantly caught by Maia Boucher at mid-on as the Fire reached 32-2 at the end of the powerplay.
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Tammy Beaumont is in disbelief as she looked set for a certain boundary until Maia Bouchier took a stunning one-handed grab
The impressive Tilly Corteen-Coleman returned to the attack to see the back of Dunkley and as Georgia Elwiss reached a run-a-ball 36 not out as the Fire closed their innings on 111-6.
Bouchier (35 off 30) and Danni Wyatt-Hodge (18 off 14) played positively and untroubled, taking the score to 32-0 after the powerplay and reducing the runs required to just 80.
Fire then struck back to stay in the game. Wyatt-Hodge was caught fantastically by Jess Jonassen at mid-off off Georgia Davis and Jonassen then came into the attack and removed Bouhier and Laura Wolvaardt.
Devine countered with a huge slog-swept six off Davis to relieve some pressure and Freya Kemp (17 off 15) then deposited Freya Davies into the stands to take the Brave closer to their target, but Kemp fell soon after, caught by Shabnim Ismail at long-off off Jonassen.
Chloe Tryon then went for a duck as Jonassen finished with exceptional figures of 4-10 before Devine (25) skied Matthews to Davies to leave the Brave needing 10 from the last 10 and then six from the final five.
Northern Superchargers Women win by eight wickets
Northern Superchargers earned a crucial win at Lord’s to leapfrog hosts London Spirit and take themselves to second in the table in The Hundred women’s competition.
It wasn’t quite a must-win game for Hollie Armitage’s side but, having lost to Manchester Originals last time out, their prospects of qualifying have increased substantially after inflicting upon Spirit their second defeat of the season.
Superchargers started well with the ball, with both Grace Ballinger (2-12) and Kate Cross (1-20) bowling their first 10 deliveries through to take a wicket apiece. When Nicola Carey (2-17) dismissed Grace Harris and Dani Gibson in consecutive balls, all the wind was taken out of Spirit’s sails and they never threatened to post an overly imposing total.
As it was the team in purple made light work of the chase, knocking it off two wickets down with 34 balls to spare.
Spirit will want to prove that they’re not reliant on Harris’ runs for success, while for Superchargers they’ll be heartened by the up-turn in form of Phoebe Litchfield – awarded Meerkat Match Hero here for her 38-ball 55 with her customary array of switch-hits dotted throughout.
On a day that Southern Brave secured their qualification with their sixth successive win, the fight for the next two qualification spots – and a place in at least The Hundred Eliminator – looks set to go down to the wire between today’s two combatants and Manchester Originals (all tied on 16 points), who take on Trent Rockets on Thursday.
How do matches work?
One hundred balls a side, the team with the most runs wins. It is as simple as that.Five bowlers can bowl up to 20 balls in an innings, including five or 10 in a row.The traditional six-ball overs seen in other forms of cricket are not used in The Hundred, with 10 balls bowled before a change of ends.The powerplay is for the first 25 balls of an innings, with only two fielders allowed outside the 30-yard circle.A 25-ball-a-side game is the minimum length that can be played in the event of wet weather.
What’s next?
The Hundred continues live on Sky Sports Cricket on Thursday with Trent Rockets away at the Oval Invincibles, while Manchester Originals are not back in action until Sunday against Birmingham Phoenix.
London Spirit play on Saturday against Southern Brave while Northern Superchargers play on the same day against Oval Invincibles.
Welsh Fire return on Friday away at Birmingham Phoenix.
Watch every match across the women’s and men’s competitions live on Sky Sports from August 5-31.
