Tag: Welsh Fire

Spirit Win The Hundred (Women’s)

A look back at the final of The Hundred (women’s), plus mention of a great finish to the Eliminator in the Hundred (men’s), and a brief mention of the One Day Cup semi-finals and a photo gallery.

The final of the Hundred (women’s) has just ended, and it has been an absolute cracker. The men’s final starts at 6PM, and last night saw a great finish in their Eliminator match – it went to a super five, with Southern Brave managing to win. Birmingham Phoenix should have won in open play – Akeal Hosein bowled a no-ball to start the final five balls, and it went for six as well, which left Phoenix needing three off five balls. Phoenix failed to finish it from there, then scored only seven from their five balls in the Super Five, and finished the snatching of defeat from the jaws of victory by trusting Adam Milne to bowl their five balls, when they had Mousley who had recently won them a game by conceding just three from the last 10 balls available to do so.

THE WELSH FIRE INNINGS

Welsh Fire had won the league stage of the tournament and their reward for doing so was to progress straight to today’s final. London Spirit faced Oval Invincibles in the Eliminator yesterday (see here for details), and won that match. Spirit won the toss and chose to field first. Fire struggled with the bat, but Aussie all rounder Jess Jonassen gave them some hope with 54 off 41 balls, which helped them reached 115-8. A small total, but not an absolutely hopeless one. Sarah Glenn had 2-17 from her 20 balls, Deepti Sharma 1-23 and Eva Gray 2-23.

THE LONDON SPIRT CHASE

The 12th ball of the innings, bowled by Shabnim Ismail, the fastest bowler for any side in this tournament, secured the prize scalp of Meg Lanning for just 4. Cordelia Griffith got to 10 before Georgia Davis got one to take the edge of her bat and Sarah Bryce took a smart catch behind the stumps. Georgia Redmayne and Heather Knight looked in control of proceedings until Ismail intervened again, bowling Knight for 24 (18). That was 56-3 after 56 balls, 60 still needed off 44 balls. Dani Gregory now arrived at the crease, and she played the crucial innings – 22 off just nine deliveries, before Ismail clean bowled her to make it three wickets in the innings. Sharma, for my money the Player of the Tournament, now joined Redmayne with 28 needed off 29 balls. 16 of those runs had been accrued by the time Freya Davis trapped Redmayne LBW for 34 (32). A frenetic innings by Abi Freeborn ended when she ran herself out, setting off for a single in which Deepti Sharma had no interest and which was never on. Four were needed on three balls, with Sharma on strike and Matthews bowling. Sharma launched a straight drive, which as it happened went all the way for six, and London Spirit had secured the trophy. Sharma, 16* (16) had taken her aggregate for the tournament to 212, which was also her average for the tournament as she had been dismissed only once.

ELSEWHERE

The semi-finals of the One Day Cup are taking place today. Glamorgan look like they are getting the better of Warwickshire, while Somerset are likely to beat Leicestershire, although the latter are making a good fight of it in response to a Somerset total of 334-4. Lewis Goldsworthy, a native of Cornwall, scored 115* off 86 balls for Somerset. James Rew with 71 off 57 balls was the next biggest contributor, and openers Andrew Umeed and George Thomas deserve credit for giving their side a very solid start, on which the more explosive likes of Goldsworthy and Rew cashed in.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My periodic reminder that clicking on a photograph will enable you to see it and others at a larger size. My usual sign off…

This one shows not just a caterpillar, but what those caterpillars do the leaves of this plant.

A Collapse

A look at developments so far in the Hundred (women’s) match between Welsh Fire and Southern Brave, and a very large photo gallery.

Today the Hundred sees Welsh Fire taking on Southern Brave. The Women’s game is in progress as I type though it may well not be by the time I finish. This post looks at what has happened so far.

PRELIMINARIES

Welsh Fire came into this match looking to consolidate their position at the top of the group while Southern Brave were looking for their first win of this edition, in their fifth match. Fire won the toss and decided to bowl first.

A TALE OF WOE

The first ball of the match, bowled by Freya Davies, took the edge of Smriti Mandhana’s bat and went through to Sarah Bryce who took the catch. That set the stage for a procession to and from the Brave dug out. Danni Wyatt and skipper Georgia Adams added 28 together for the third wicket, but otherwise there was little hint of resistance. Adams’ 17 finished up being the top score of the innings. Wyatt managed 14, and Freya Kemp with 11 produced the only other double figure score of the innings. Highly unusually for a side batting first in this competition Brave actually failed even to bat for their 100 balls, being all out to the 92nd ball of their innings, for 84. The wickets were shared around, with only Georgia Elwiss of the six Fire bowlers used not getting at least one. West Indian ace Hayley Matthews had the best figures, with 3-16, while Davies and left arm spinner Jess Jonassen each had two wickets, Jonassen’s second being the tenth, that of fellow left arm spinner Tilly Corteen-Coleman. Beth Langston had 1-8 from ten balls, and Georgia Davis was the only bowler to concede more than a run a ball, taking 1-22 from her 20.

THE FIRE REPLY

Sophia Dunkley became the second opener to record a golden duck, being bowled by Lauren Cheatle. However, although she struggled horribly to score Matthews followed her good bowling by lasting 16 balls, while Tammy Beaumont was going well at the other end. When Matthews was second out at 28, Bryce came in to join Beaumont and that pair are still together as I type. Beaumont is on 27, Bryce 6, and the score is 48-2 – 37 needed off 42 balls. While I have been preparing this for publication Tammy Beaumont has been dismissed, bowled by Cheatle for 34. The score is now 63-3, 22 needed of 28 balls to win.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My gallery is well varied, though there is a huge preponderance of caterpillars – there are two stretches of Bawsey Drain, separated by the width of Columbia Way, where the caterpillars can be found in spectacular abundance.

A peacock butterfly enjoying the Buddleia near Eastgate Bridge.
There are a few caterpillars near this ladybird…
…and this is the last image to feature caterpillars.

The Hundred Finals Weekend So Far

A look at what has happened in The Hundred finals weekend so far plus a photo galley.

With the final of The Hundred (women’s competition) under way this post looks back at the the action from yesterday. Before I go into it a note about the Hundred’s qualification rules: it is an eight team league, and in order to ensure that only teams who have been provably better than average qualify for the KO stages only three teams make it through. The team who finish top of the group qualify straight into the finals, while second and third place play off for the right to join them, with second place having the advantage that if the match gets rained out they progress based on league position.

THE WOMEN’S ELIMINATOR

This match, between Welsh Fire and Northern Superchargers, was the first scheduled for yesterday. Fire batted first and had reached 104-2 from 75 balls when the weather intervened, and did not let up in time for the match to be resumed. This meant that Superchargers, having finished second in the group, joined Southern Brave in the final, the match currently being contested. It also meant that Alex Hartley’s playing career, highlighted by being part of England’s 2017 World Cup winning side came to an end. Had Fire made the final she may have had another outing, but as it happened her time as a professional cricketer ended on the bench, not having being picked for the XI.

THE MEN’S ELIMINATOR

Southern Brave had a chance to make both finals, being joined in this Eliminator by Manchester Originals, with Oval Invincibles awaiting the winners. When they scored 196-1 from their 100 balls batting first this looked more than a possibility. Phil Salt (47 off just 17 balls) and Jos Buttler (82 off 46) had other ideas, and with other useful contributions along the way Originals, who were never at any point not ahead of the required rate won by seven wickets with four balls to spare. Jamie Overton made the winning hit, a six which meant that 196 balls had seen 397 runs scored. In view of the scoring rates elsewhere the approach of Brave opener Devon Conway (51* off 38) has to be questioned. Therefore tonight’s final of The Hundred (men’s competition) will be between Manchester Originals and Southern Brave.

THE WOMEN’S FINAL

Southern Brave are batting, and after the loss of two early wickets are mounting a decent recovery – they are currently 64-2 after 54 balls, Danni Wyatt 39*, Georgia Adams 16*. They will need to up the rate, but they are in decent shape.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…

Slow Pitch Produces Two Contrasting Fixtures in The Hundred

A look at the contrasting fixtures yesterday involving Welsh Fire and Southern Brave, the women’s match was an absolute classic, the men’s the reverse. Also a link back to my all time Ps XI which contained a bonus featured of an all time left handed XI.

Yesterday saw Welsh Fire and Southern Brave facing off in The Hundred. This post looks back at the two matches.

A TO THE WIRE CLASSIC

The Women’s match was an absolute classic. Welsh Fire batted first and tallied 144-5 from their 100 balls. Sophia Dunkley struck a superb 50 and Sarah Bryce 44 not out. Things looked decent for the Braves while Mandhana and Bouchier were going well, but then a collapse set in. Georgia Adams, who had earlier taken 2-22 with the ball scored a very rapid 40, but after she was out with nine runs still needed it got very tense indeed. Two players, Kalea Moore and Rhianna Southby were run out in the process of getting Maitlan Brown, Brave’s best remaining hope of winning the match on strike. Brown levelled the scores off the penultimate ball of the match, and then a scampered leg bye after an LBW shout was turned down (Fire had no review left to use) finally saw the Braves home.

A DISASTER CLASS BY WELSH FIRE MEN

The second match of the double header, the men’s game, was the dampest of damp squibs. Save for Stevie Eskinazi no one batted decently for the Fire, and while the lowlight of the innings was unquestionably provided by Ben Green (10 runs off 17 balls in this most rapid fire of formats) he was also involved in the only highlight of this drab innings, becoming the first victim of a birthday hat trick for Tymal Mills (emulating Peter Siddle at the Gabba in 2010 in achieving such a feat on this anniversary, though Siddle’s outranks his, coming as it did in an Ashes test match) on the 98th, 99th and 100th balls, the other two victims being Pakistani pace aces and tailenders Haris Rauf and Shaheen Shah Afridi. This left Welsh Fire with a beggarly 87 to defend, and the Braves made it look very easy indeed, getting home with a preposterous 41 balls to spare, and for the loss of only one wicket.

PHOTOGRAPHS AND ONE FROM THE ARCHIVES

August 13th is International Left Handers Day, which means that my all time Ps XI, created OTD last year came with a bonus feature of an all left handed XI. Feel free to comment on either XI, though I would appreciate it if you read the whole original post before doing so. The two XIs featured a year ago were:

LH in batting order: *G Smith, AN Cook, BC Lara, RG Pollock, FE Woolley, G St A Sobers, +AC Gilchrist, Wasim Akram, AK Davidson, MG Johnson, H Verity. Note on this one – Stokes had to be disqualified because his bowling, far too significant to be overlooked, is done with his right hand, and similarly Hirst and Rhodes, the Kirkheaton twins, batted right handed and again in neither case can this part of their game be ignored.

The Ps in batting order: A Petersen, WH Ponsford, RT Ponting, RG Pollock, KP Pietersen, +R Pant, *MJ Procter, S Pollock, PM Pollock, CWL Parker, EAE Prasanna.

Now for my usual sign off…