Perry’s unbeaten 68 gets Birmingham Phoenix home with a ball to spare

Alice Capsey holed out with 24 still needed and 18 balls left, which is the point in a Birmingham Phoenix chase where things have tended to go wrong this season. Not this time. Ellyse Perry took a six and a four off two Heather Graham deliveries at the death and finished unbeaten on 68 from 46 balls, and the Phoenix got home with a ball to spare.

It was their first win of the Women’s Hundred, in their fourth match, in front of a big crowd at Edgbaston. Jude Bellingham, who bought a 1.2 per cent stake in the franchise in April, watched from the stands.

Capsey built it, Perry finished it

Phoenix put Welsh Fire in and then made a mess of the first few balls of their own reply. Davina Perrin carved Grace Potts to Georgia Wareham at point for 2. Tammy Beaumont made 14 before holing out to deep midwicket off Wareham’s legspin, and at 35 for 2 the chase needed someone to take it on.

Capsey did. She reached her fifty from 28 balls with seven fours and a six, and when she fell for 51, caught by Graham off Georgia Voll’s part-time bowling, she and Perry had added 86 in 54 balls. That partnership is the whole match.

Perry’s own fifty took 39 balls and did not contain a six. She was still there at the end because Phoenix have spent four matches learning that she has to be. Annerie Dercksen absorbed a few balls after Capsey went and then handed the strike back to the 35-year-old, who was named player of the match.

Voll’s 78 gave Fire a total worth defending

Welsh Fire’s 144 for 3 was mostly Georgia Voll. The powerplay was slow, 25 for 0 off the first 25 balls, before she went after Alana King and Linsey Smith and brought up her fifty with a six off Eva Gray. She finished with nine fours and two sixes in 78 from 55, caught at long-on by Capsey off Smith with nine balls of the innings remaining.

Sophie Devine did the rest, clearing the ropes twice inside the last six balls, first off Smith and then off King, to finish 35 not out from 19. Capsey was also the pick of the Phoenix bowlers, 2 for 24 from her 15 deliveries, the only bowler on either side to take more than one wicket.

Where it leaves both teams

Phoenix started the day bottom of the eight-team table with two points and a net run rate of minus 3.439, the damage mostly done by a nine-wicket defeat to Trent Rockets on 24 July that ended with 69 balls unused. They are now fifth on six points from four matches, and the net run rate has been dragged up to minus 2.184. It is still the worst in the competition.

Welsh Fire drop to seventh on four points from four, and their run-in does not offer much relief: Southern Brave, who have won all four and lead on 16 points, then Manchester Super Giants, Sunrisers and London Spirit. Phoenix face Trent Rockets, Sunrisers, London Spirit and MI London.

Both have four group games left. Fire have the better net run rate and much the harder run-in. Phoenix have the worst net run rate in the tournament and, finally, a win.

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