Ellyse Perry makes 39 of Birmingham Phoenix’s 64 as Trent Rockets win in 31 balls
Four ducks, six wickets down inside 36 balls and a debutant with 3 for 10: Birmingham Phoenix were taken apart at Edgbaston, and only Ellyse Perry reached double figures.
Jul 25, 2026
Birmingham Phoenix were 15 for 6 at Edgbaston on Friday, 36 balls into their innings, with Ellyse Perry watching it happen from the other end. She finished on 39. Her team finished on 64, which means the other ten batters in the order contributed 18 runs between them.
Trent Rockets knocked off the 65 they needed in 31 balls and won by nine wickets with 69 to spare. Phoenix already owned the lowest total in the history of the women’s Hundred, the 54 they were bowled out for against Northern Superchargers on this same ground in 2024. Friday’s 64 equals the joint-second lowest.
A debut worth keeping
Samantha Bates had never played in this competition before Friday. The Australian left-arm spinner bowled her 20 balls, conceded 10 runs, took the wickets of Alice Capsey, Annerie Dercksen and Jemima Spence, and walked off with the player-of-the-match award.
Georgia Elwiss matched her for wickets with 3 for 13. Between them they sent down 40 balls for 23 runs, 25 of which were dots, and that is the whole match in one line. Kim Garth had taken 2 for 5 before either of them got going. Katie Levick and Ashleigh Gardner picked up the other two.
Perry ran out of partners
Tammy Beaumont was caught off Garth in the sixth ball of the innings. Capsey went for 1, Davina Perrin for 2 off ten balls, and then Dercksen and Spence both fell without scoring in the space of two balls. Kayla Reyneke made a six-ball duck. Four Phoenix batters were dismissed for nought and a fifth finished not out on nought.
Perry kept swinging because there was nothing else available to her. She hit two fours and two sixes in 33 balls, took Phoenix past 50 in the 80th ball of the innings, and was the last wicket to fall with five balls of the innings still unused. Alana King and Eva Gray hung around long enough to help her add 31 for the seventh and eighth wickets, and that was the resistance.
Dunkley made it look absurd
Sophia Dunkley then went out and hit 43 not out off 17 balls with eight fours and a six. Beth Mooney was bowled by Lauren Filer for 4, which is the only thing that went right for Phoenix in the chase, and Sophie Luff finished it with 19 off nine. The Rockets had 50 on the board inside 24 balls.
Four points from their opening game put Trent Rockets top of the table on net run rate. Phoenix sit bottom of the eight with none, and their next assignment is Manchester Super Giants on Sunday, a side that bowled London Spirit out for 80 at Lord’s earlier in the week. It does not get gentler from here.