A last-ball thriller finally broke Southern Brave’s five-match winning streak, giving Welsh Fire a much-needed victory in the Women’s Hundred on Monday (August 3).
Heather Graham’s composure trumped that of veteran Lizelle Lee, who had a forgettable time behind the stumps, crucially fumbling a run-out chance off the penultimate ball. With one needed off the last ball, Graham managed to tap the ball past short cover for the winning runs.
The second-half of the chase see-sawed around Graham’s unbeaten knock. Tilly Corteen-Coleman had already cut open Welsh Fire’s top order, nabbing Georgia Voll and Ella McCaughan in the space of three balls to dent Brave’s chase of 122. Feeling the pinch without Sophie Devine, they slipped to 44/3 when Freya Kemp holed out to Lauren Bell at long-on.
From that point, the Brave bowlers did well to wrest control of the game. Still, it wasn’t all perfect: Lee almost messed up the McCaughan stumping, and then dropped Georgia Wareham, also missing a stumping chance of Kemp.
Wareham gave them a brief piece of resistance but was tricked by a Lauren Bell special—a back-of-hand slower ball barely over 50 mph—which died on the surface, knocked the stumps and gave their chase a serious rattle. Bell would return for the final set.
But Heather Graham did not give up. A wild slog off Corteen-Coleman broke a 23-ball boundary-less period. By then, she had ambled into the 20s. And by the end of that set, the equation was down to 30 off 20.
But Saran Glenn put the brakes on Graham’s attempt to find any space, or power behind her shots. Astonishingly, it came down to debutant Grace Thompson, who jumped out and cracked a six to the cover fence, to keep the chase alive. The gum-chewing 19-year-old then nonchalantly smashed the next ball past Wong’s head for a four, bringing the home crowd on their feet.
Wong had her the very next ball, or so she thought: a seemingly plumb leg-before was reversed after a review. Thompson’s cameo was very much on.
But Wong craftily bowled a knuckle ball next up, a thick edge was sharply pouched by Corteen-Coleman. For a moment, it felt like the Brave spinner had trumped Thompson in the battle of teenagers.
That made way for another pivotal cameo. No.8 Niamh Holland managed to bring it down to eight off the last five. She then made it four in three by slapping a Bell slower one behind point.
Bell still trusted her slower ones, but couldn’t prevent Graham from taking them through, helped along by the Lee flub.
Earlier, Laura Wolvaardt and Jemimah Rodrigues kept together Brave’s innings that did not feature a single six. Grace Potts, utilising the early swing well, picked out Lizelle Lee early, out for her second duck in a row, with Maia Bouchier falling soon after. Rodrigues then combined with Wolvaardt to set the ship in order, before Graham took out both. Their 49-run stand came off 43 balls, but steadied them enough to push along towards 120. They just trickled past it, getting small contributions from Jodie Grewcock and skipper Sophie Molineux.
There was little breathing room for Brave, as Fire were top-notch on the field. Skipper Wareham took three catches and effected a run-out, sending Molineux packing with a direct hit. In hindsight, Brave gave away 10 wides, which, combined with the missed chances, made a difference in the end.
Fire now move to fourth on the points table. Brave are still sitting pretty with 20 points but missed out on a chance in Cardiff to officially qualify for the semis.
Brief scores: Southern Brave Women 121/5 (Laura Wolvaardt 48, Jemimah Rodrigues 25; Grace Potts 2-14, Heather Graham 2-23) lost to Welsh Fire Women 122/6 (Heather Graham 35*, Grace Thompson 16; Tilly Corteen-Coleman 3-27, Issy Wong 2-17) by four wickets.
