Manchester Super Giants make 85, and Ecclestone’s 3 for 14 almost defends it
Orla Prendergast’s 4 for 18 is the second-best return of this year’s women’s Hundred. It left Welsh Fire needing only 86 at Old Trafford, and they still lost seven wickets getting there.
Aug 5, 2026
Orla Prendergast had taken three wickets inside the first 15 balls at Old Trafford on Wednesday, and Manchester Super Giants never recovered from it. Held to 85 for 9 from their 100 balls, they then very nearly defended the thing. Welsh Fire got home by three wickets with nine balls to spare, seven down, in a chase of 86 that should have taken half as long as it did.
Prendergast wrecked the top order before it started
Prendergast finished with 4 for 18, the second-best figures anyone has managed in this year’s women’s Hundred. Meg Lanning went first ball. Mady Villiers made 5, Kathryn Bryce 4, and by the time the Super Giants had scraped past 40 the innings had already been decided.
Smriti Mandhana had started as though none of this was going to happen, pulling Grace Potts for six off the fourth ball of the match. She was run out for 15 from 17 balls. Richa Ghosh took 19 balls over 11. The top score was 18 not out from Ryana MacDonald-Gay, batting at nine, which tells you most of what you need to know about the ones above her.
Ecclestone made 86 look like a total
Chasing it should have been routine. Sophie Ecclestone decided otherwise, taking 3 for 14 and turning a formality into something the Fire had to think about. Georgia Wareham’s 17 from 12 was the closest thing to a decisive innings, and when she went, caught by Lanning off Ecclestone, the Fire were still not clear.
Georgia Voll and Sarah Bryce made 16 each at the top. Prendergast, having taken the game apart with the ball, was bowled first ball by Ecclestone. It fell to Heather Graham, unbeaten on 16, to walk them over the line with nine balls unused.
A quiet night for the India pair
Between them Mandhana and Ghosh faced 36 balls and made 26. For a Super Giants side that has leaned on Mandhana all competition, and did exactly that at Headingley last week, 85 was always going to be the consequence of both of them going cheaply on the same night.
Prendergast took the match award, which stopped being a question somewhere inside her first 15 balls. She is a recent, short-notice arrival at the Fire, and she has already changed two of them.