Women’s Hundred, Ageas Bowl |
Northern Superchargers 76-3 (73 balls): Wolvaardt 21* (22); Bell 2-19 |
Southern Brave 89-3 (62 balls): Dunkley 50* (28), Bouchier 33* (19); Moore 2-9 |
Southern Brave win by seven wickets |
Scorecard; Table |
Two England youngsters, Sophia Dunkley and Lauren Bell, starred as Southern Brave beat Northern Superchargers in a battle of the top two in the women’s Hundred.
Dunkley, 23, smashed 50 not out off 28 balls, while 20-year-old Bell took 2-19, including the crucial wicket of the tournament’s leading run-scorer Jemimah Rodrigues.
Brave were struggling at 5-2, and 26-3, in their chase of a revised 89 off 75 balls – after rain had prematurely ended Superchargers’ innings after 73 balls – but Dunkley demonstrated her power, class and perhaps most pertinently her temperament to produce a stunning match-winning knock.
She shared an unbroken 63 with Maia Bouchier, who made an unbeaten 19-ball 33, as the pair saw Brave home with 13 balls to spare.
Earlier, during a stop-start innings twice interrupted by rain, Superchargers made 76-3, with South Africa’s Laura Wolvaardt top scoring with 21.
Brave move to 10 points at the top of the table – and are all but mathematically assured of a place in the knockout stages – while Superchargers remain second on seven points.
Bell continues to impress
Bell is considered a future England bowler, having been in and around Lisa Keightley’s squad and one of 24 players invited to return to training during the pandemic last summer.
Nicknamed The Shard because of her height, Bell has regularly taken wickets in domestic competitions and now has seven in The Hundred.
The criminology student didn’t have the best start on Saturday with her first ball being above waist height, and therefore a no-ball, and cut to the boundary, she had technically conceded six before bowling a legitimate ball.
Her comeback was magnificent. She had India’s Rodrigues caught at mid-on, before having Bess Heath pouched at fine leg.
Bell has bowled in the 25-ball powerplay and towards the end of the innings during The Hundred, but impressively six of her seven strikes have come in the middle – from ball 38 to ball 68 – and that is a skill and habit that will make Keightley and England skipper Heather Knight sit up and pay attention.
A major part of England men’s 50-over World Cup success in 2019 was the middle-over wickets of Liam Plunkett because of his variations and height, and in Bell England women may have found theirs before March’s World Cup in New Zealand.
More to follow.