Today sees the penultimate group games in The Hundred, Trent Rockets v Birmingham Phoenix. This post looks back at the women’s match and also at the table as it stands with one fixture remaining.
MAKING AN EASY TASK LOOK DIFFICULT
Birmingham Phoenix elected to bat first. Unfortunately they did not bat well. Emma Lamb scored an unbeaten 56, but no one else made a significant score. There were 14s for Ellyse Perry and Marie Kelly, each off 15 balls, but the second best innings for Phoenix was Ailsa Lister’s six ball 12 at the death. At one stage in the chase Rockets were 92-2 with Natalie Sciver-Brunt going well and Ashleigh Gardner having hit a couple of fine shots. Then Ailsa Lister took a superb catch, sprinting in off the boundary and diving forward to complete the catch and dismiss Gardner. Ten runs later Sciver-Brunt departed one ball after reaching her half century, hitting one from Hannah Baker straight to Megan Schutt at cover. Heather Graham fell to another catch by Lister, off Phoebe Brett, and then three balls later Rockets keeper Threlkeld was on her way LBW for 2 and it was 109-6, and suddenly Phoenix had half a chance. Incidentally Amy Jones, Phoenix’s keeper and also England’s current keeper, has had a very poor tournament with the bat, and Threlkeld would be among the potential replacements if England are starting to think about that (Rihanna Southby would be my choice, with Threlkeld and Bess Heath also in the mix). Alana King and Jodi Grewcock seemed to have seen through the danger when King edged Schutt through to Jones and it was 119-7. Kirstie Gordon now came in, and she scored three off the next four balls, which meant that after 96 balls of the chase Rockets needed two to win. Grewcock put the 97th ball of the innings, from Em Arlott, away for four to seal the win for the Rockets.
THE STANDINGS
The six teams who have played all their group fixtures occupy positions two to seven inclusive in the table, and the only positions that might change are at the bottom – if Welsh Fire, last in the table, do the unthinkable and beat Southern Brave, top of the table, in the final game they will leapfrog both Birmingham Phoenix and Oval Invincibles on net run rate. If Brave win the standings will stay as they are at present.
PHOTOGRAPHS
My usual sign off…
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