Eskinazi’s ferocious 43 sees Fire make gentle of run chase
Welsh Fire 116 for 4 (Eskinazi 43) beat Birmingham Phoenix 112 for 7 (Livingstone 28, Payne 2-11, van der Merwe 2-16, Rauf 2-20) by six wickets
Welsh Fire asserted their authority on the 2023 Men’s Hundred by thrashing Birmingham Phoenix by six wickets at Edgbaston.
There is an actual feeling across the Fire camp that, for the primary time, they will mount a problem on this 12 months’s match and their dismantling of Phoenix actually backed up that view.
Phoenix selected to bat however mustered solely 112 for 7, by no means shedding the shackles of a centered and fired up Fire assault. David Payne led the way in which with wonderful units early and late on to complete with 2 for 11 whereas robust assist was lent by Roelof van der Merwe with 2 for 16 and Haris Rauf‘s 2 for 20.
Phoenix’s limp effort with the bat left them needing one thing dynamic with the ball however Fire blazed to 116 for 4 from 85 balls after Stephen Eskinazi launched their reply with a ferocious 18-ball 43. They charged to 50 with out loss in 21 balls and by no means appeared again.
Phoenix discovered their early batting progress impeded by the talents of van der Merwe. The left-arm spinner eliminated Will Smeed, who despatched up a skier, and Ben Duckett, caught at quick effective leg.
After Jamie Smith was bowled by an categorical yorker from Rauf, van der Merwe discovered himself underneath a top-edged hoik from Moeen Ali and held on on the third try.
Fire bowled with tempo and goal, encapsulated by the speedy, full-length supply which eluded a crude try by Liam Livingstone to land one among the many spectators within the Hollies Stand. That normally raucous throng was as subdued as may very well be and a cadaverous haul of simply six runs from the final ten balls, skilfully delivered by Shaheen Shah Afridi and Payne, did nothing to raise the noise ranges.
Blaze took their momentum emphatically into the batting as Eskinazi improvised magnificently. He smashed, scooped, skewered and squeezed the ball to all areas on the way in which to 43 in a gap stand of 67 in 32 balls with Joe Clarke.
A crumb of hope got here the house aspect’s method when Benny Howell eliminated each openers in 5 balls. When Luke Wells fell lbw, reverse sweeping Moeen Ali, three wickets had fallen for six runs in ten balls, however Fire’s effective work within the area had earned them the posh of withstanding a wobble.
Tom Abell’s 23 not out from 18 balls noticed the guests residence at a canter leaving the Hollies Stand as flat as a pancake and a distinguished, sombrero-wearing, first-time customer to the normally ebullient venue reflecting that the spotlight of her day was a nap within the sunshine through the first innings.