Graham’s last ball ends Southern Brave’s unbeaten run as Welsh Fire win twice in Cardiff
Heather Graham took two wickets and then hit the winning runs off the final delivery, and Matt Short’s unbeaten 60 completed a Sophia Gardens double over Southern Brave.
Aug 4, 2026
Southern Brave spent Monday at Sophia Gardens losing twice to the same club. Welsh Fire’s women took the first game off the final ball of the match, their men won the second with five balls to spare, and by the end of a long day in Cardiff the Brave had lost their unbeaten record in one competition and most of their momentum in the other.
The women’s game was the one worth staying for. Southern Brave made 121 for 5, Welsh Fire got 122 for 6, and it went to the last delivery of the night.
Graham does it twice in one match
Heather Graham had already taken 2 for 23, and the two she took were the two that mattered: Laura Wolvaardt for 48 and Jemimah Rodrigues for 25, the pair who had rebuilt the Brave innings after a slow start and were setting up something bigger. Georgia Wareham held three catches and ran out Sophie Molineux with a direct hit.
Then Graham batted. She finished 35 not out from 28 balls, with Niamh Holland finding a couple of important boundaries at the other end as the target came down. It should not have got to the last ball at all. Lizelle Lee had Graham short of her ground and dropped the ball, which left one run needed off one delivery instead of a run-out and a tie. Graham hit the final ball through the infield.
Southern Brave had won every game they had played this summer. They have now lost one. Welsh Fire climb to fourth.
Short outdoes Stoinis in the men’s game
Matt Short missed Welsh Fire’s win over Birmingham Phoenix with a niggle. He returned on Monday, opened the batting and was still there at the end on 60 not out from 41 balls, six fours and two sixes, some of it scooped. He had arrived in Cardiff from the MLC in the United States, where he had made 94 not out and 121 not out, and it showed.
He bowled as well, taking 2 for 13 including David Miller. Marcus Stoinis was the one Southern Brave batter to make the surface look normal, hitting 55 from 39 while wickets went at the other end, and 115 for 8 was never going to be enough. Sophia Gardens gave the seamers plenty on both sides, which Short later summed up as spicy.
Fire chased 116 for the loss of four wickets, Short and Joe Root putting on 56 for the second wicket to take the difficulty out of it early. That is a fourth win in five for Welsh Fire, who keep pace with Trent Rockets at the top, and a second win over the Brave this season.
Where this leaves both sides
Southern Brave came into Monday fourth in the men’s competition with two wins from five, and Monday cost them most of what the win over the Spirit had bought them. Their women have lost nothing except the aura, and with the group stage still running there is time for that to stop mattering.
Welsh Fire, meanwhile, won twice in a day on their own square, one of those against the only side that had not lost all summer. Their men are keeping pace with the Rockets at the top and their women are up to fourth, which is a considerably better Tuesday morning than either team was looking at a fortnight ago.