Southern Brave reclaim prime spot after edging Birmingham Phoenix in thriller
Southern Brave 132 for 4 (Wyatt 43) beat Birmingham Phoenix 129 for 8 by three runs
Smriti Mandhana overtook Tammy Beaumont to return to the highest of the Women’s Hundred scoring charts as Southern Brave beat winless Birmingham Phoenix by three runs in a thriller.
Indian opener Mandhana has 224 runs within the 2023 version of the Hundred after a classy 39, which all made her the primary girls previous 600 runs within the match’s historical past.
The 84 runs she placed on with opening associate Danni Wyatt set Brave on their technique to fifth victory from six fixtures to ship them again prime of the desk.
Lauren Bell, Georgia Adams and Anya Shrubsole all took two wickets to verify Brave defended 132 as already eradicated Phoenix reached 129 in entrance of a file 9,829 for a girls’s Hundred sport on the Ageas Bowl.
Brave received the toss and eased by way of the gears with Mandhana and Wyatt cruising to 36 in a no-thrills powerplay.
The abroad star was formidable by way of the leg aspect – with 25 of her runs coming from hits throughout the road, with a transparent plan to rotate the strike with singles into the midwicket expanse.
Wyatt struck all however considered one of her six boundaries behind the wicket earlier than she was bowled by an impeccable legcutter for 43.
The 84 the opening duo placed on was the Brave’s fourth highest stand and the eighth time the pair had scored over 50 collectively.
Mandhana fell 11 balls later to the seventieth ball when she was given leg earlier than to Arlott – who ended with two for 22. Replays confirmed it ought to have been reviewed because it pitched outdoors leg stump.
Phoenix performed three leg spinners on a pitch which turned however all three had been milked, with solely Katie Levick getting on the wicket listing when she had Georgia Adams stumped.
Maia Bouchier swept Erin Burns’ off spin onto her personal stumps – the Australian was the one bowler to go at below a run a ball as Brave posted a barely above-par 132.
Sophie Devine swatted the third ball of the innings to midwicket however Sterre Kalis and Eve Jones constructed a platform with a 40-run stand.
They each fell inside 9 balls of one another because the spin duo of Kalea Moore and Adams each pulled Brave again on prime – Kalis lbw to Adams and Jones caught at midwicket.
Another stand, this time of 43 between Burns and Jones edged the guests in the direction of favourites.
But Jones was run out by Bouchier’s robust arm after some sluggish operating to depart Phoenix needing 36 off 24 balls.
Burns hit Adams for the primary six of the day after which a 4, however was caught at long-on.
Defending 15 off the final finish, Bell constructed stress with a pair of slower-ball dots earlier than discovering Abbey Freeborn mishitting to mid-off.
And Shrubsole had Tess Flintoff caught-and-bowled and Hannah Baker stumped whereas defending 5 off the ultimate ball as Brave boosted their hopes of a 3rd journey to Lord’s, with their play-off place now all however ensured.