Today is a ‘double double header’ day in The Hundred. The early women’s match featured Manchester Super Giants and Welsh Fire in action at Old Trafford. This post looks back at that match.
MANCHESTER SUPER GIANTS INNINGS
Manchester Super Giants started badly and got worse. With one ball of her allocation to go Irish medium pacer Orla Prendergast was on for the best figures in this year’s Hundred (women’s), with 4-14 against her name at that point. Had that last delivery been a wicket, a dot or a single she would have displaced Ashleigh Gardner’s 4-16. As it was the delivery was edged for four, somewhat unjustly depriving her of this landmark, leaving her with 4-18 overall. The innings ended with number 11 Bex Tyson showing up her more renowned colleagues by hitting a four over cover and then scoring a single. Manchester Super Giants had limped to 85-9, which should never have come close to being a defensible total…
MAKING A BANQUET OF AN EASY TASK
Welsh Fire were barely any more impressive than their opponents had been with the bat. At 64-4 from 68 balls and with Ecclestone, Super Giants’ most dangerous bowler having only two balls left Fire looked in control, unimpressive as their efforts had been. Then, off Ecclestone’s penultimate ball Georgia Wareham let fly and was caught by Meg Lanning for 17 (12). Had she played Ecclestone out the match would have been effectively settled. Ecclestone ended with a dot ball and figures of 3-14 from her 20 balls. Scoring was now painfully slow, and when Grace Thompson was run out in bizarre fashion, setting off for a run only for bowler Kathryn Bryce to pick the ball up and return it to the keeper for her to be run out, and then two balls later Niamh Holland was out bowled by the Scot for a duck it was 76-7 from 83 balls and there was just a hint that Fire could somehow contrive to lose this one. Rhianna Southby, the Fire keeper, who had been impeccable in her main role, including a very smart stumping to account for Ecclestone, now came in and hit a four to ease the pressure. After two dots balls she added another, and though the match had limped into its final 10 balls only two runs were now needed for the win. Heather Graham now struck a boundary off Mady Villiers to finish things with nine balls and three wickets to spare, but Fire had done it the hard way. Prendergast’s 4-18 got her the ‘Match Hero’ award, though personally I would have honoured Southby for a blemish-free keeping performance and her sensible batting when it looked her side were making a Horlicks of the chase. Few if any of the other 21 players involved could point to an unblemished performance. Scorecard here.
PHOTOGRAPHS
My usual sign off…
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