The Hundred Women’s 2022, Match 3 and 4 Review: Trent Rockets and Birmingham Phoenix register easy victories

Trent Rockets and Birmingham Phoenix had an excellent outing against the Manchester Originals and Welsh Fire respectively in a double-header of The Hundred 2022 Women’s competition on August 13 (Saturday). While the Rockets won their competition against the Originals by 43 runs, Welsh Fire on the other hand had to suffer a defeat against the Phoenix by 19 runs.

Talking about the first match between the Rockets and the Originals, Manchester won the toss and opted to have a bowl first. Their decision proved right as they got some early wickets with Elyse Villani, Marie Kelly, and Mignon du Preez getting out without reaching the double figures.

Opener Bryony Smith and wicketkeeper-batter Abigail Freeborn then came together but the partnership did not last long. Even after Smith got out Abigail continued with the bat as she scored an unbeaten 45 runs in just 38 balls and smashed seven fours. Some excellent hitting by Alana King (19 off nine balls) meant that the Rockets finished on 119 in their allotted 100 deliveries.

Just like the Rockets, Manchester started poorly as well with the batting team losing three wickets inside the field restrictions. While Emma Lamb and Deandra Dottin could not even open their accounts, Amy Satterthwaite could 0nly score nine runs.

However, the real damage was done by King as she scalped the first-ever hat-trick in the Hundred Women’s competition after taking the wickets of Cordelia Griffith, Sophie Ecclestone, and skipper Kate Cross. She gave away only 15 runs in 20 deliveries and took four wickets with her side winning the match by a comfortable margin of 43 runs.

Birmingham Phoenix beat Welsh Fire in the second encounter of the day

Talking about the second match of the day, Welsh Fire won the toss and decided to have a field first. The bowling team did get some early success but some batting excellence from skipper S Devine (48 off 25 balls) and star all-rounder Ellyse Perry (58 off 31 balls) meant that the Phoenix finished on a strong total of 161 runs in their 100 deliveries.

In reply, Welsh Fire had an excellent start with the bat as skipper Tammy Beaumont (39 runs) and Hayley Matthews (20 runs) thrashed the Phoenix bowlers. Annabel Sutherland (34 runs) and Fran Wilson (20 runs) also played well in the chase, but the required run rate kept climbing.

In the end, the Phoenix could only manage to score 142 runs in their allotted 100 balls and lost the contest by 19 runs. For Trent Rockets, Georgia Elwiss (two wickets), skipper Devine (one wicket), and Abtaha Maqsood (one wicket) were the successful bowlers. Perry was adjudged the Player of the Match for her excellent knock with the bat.