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The Women’s 100: Sophie Devine stars as Brave maintain perfect start
A tight bowling performance led by Sophie Devine followed by a comfortable run chase with Danni Wyatt-Hodge and Laura Wolvaardt at the helm saw Southern Brave easily defeat Northern Superchargers by eight wickets at Southampton and make it three wins from three in The Hundred women’s competition.
Electing to bat first, Superchargers started in a subdued fashion, scoring just four from the first 10 balls and losing Alice Davidson-Richards (2) and Phoebe Litchfield (5) on the way to posting 19-2 in the 25-ball powerplay.
Davina Perrin (13) was run out by Tilly Corteen-Coleman going for an incredibly risky second as the visitors continued to labour against tight Brave bowling, reaching 43-3 at halfway.
Mady Villiers took the big wicket of Annabel Sutherland (20), the Aussie well caught by Maia Bouchier at long-on, before Georgia Adams removed Superchargers wicketkeeper Bess Heath (3), brilliantly caught running backwards by her opposite number Rhianna Southby.
Skipper Hollie Armitage (36 not out) stuck in and was joined by Lucy Higham (13) at 74 for 7, the pair rallying late in the innings, sharing a partnership of 27 before Higham was dismissed by Devine (3-15) as the Kiwi took two-in-two in the final set to see Supercharges 102 all out.
In the chase, Grace Ballinger conceded just a wide from the opening set as Maia Bouchier started cautiously.
A single by Wyatt-Hodge off Kate Cross to take the score to 5-0 saw the experienced right-hander become the second player to pass 1,000 runs in The Hundred after Nat Sciver-Brunt reached the milestone last week.
Bouchier (5) was caught at mid-off off Cross, but Wyatt-Hodge put her foot on the gas, hitting Linsey Smith’s left-arm spin for three consecutive boundaries, combining with Wolvaardt to bring up the Brave’s 50.
Wyatt-Hodge was stumped off Katherine Fraser for 43 with 20 runs still required, but Wolvaardt (33 not out) and Devine (15 not out) saw the Brave home with 17 balls to spare.
Meerkat Match Hero Devine said: “The support we’ve had down here these last two games has been exceptional, so nice to have a couple of wins here and we’ve got a bit of travel to do now.
“We were a little bit in two minds as well with the overhead conditions and a used wicket, the great thing about this competition is the wins at home and being able to play to your home conditions and I think we did that exceptionally well today.
“Credit to everyone, I think we adapted really well with the ball and the way Danni and Wolvy went out there with the bat, they made it look like a different wicket.”
Brief scores:
Southern Brave Women 103 for 2 in 83 balls (Dani Wyatt-Hodge 43, Laura Wolvaardt 33*, Sophie Devine 15*; Kate Cross 1-25, Katherine Fraser 1-11) beat Northern Superchargers Women 102 in 100 balls (Davina Perrin 13, Annabel Sutherland 20, Hollie Armitage 36, Lucy Higham 13; Lauren Bell 1-25, Sophie Devine 3-15, Tilley Corteen Coleman 1-17, Maddy Villiers 1-09, Georgia Adams 2-20) by eight wickets
[Cricinfo]
If you want a thing done well, do it yourself. Harry Brook, England’s captain, took matters into his own hands in Pallekele, promoting himself to No. 3 and blazing his maiden T20 international hundred to drag his team past Pakistan and into the semi-finals of the Men’s T20 World Cup 2026 with a game to spare, almost single-handedly.
Brook started the tournament, his first as captain, with 53 against Nepal but had been dismissed by spin for less than 20 for four innings in a row. His response was to move up two spots from No. 5 in order to bat in the powerplay, and he found himself walking out to face the second ball after Shaheen Shah Afridi – recalled by Pakistan – struck with the first ball of England’s chase.
Afridi took three wickets in the powerplay to check England’s progress, and Usman Tariq struck twice in the middle overs to reduce them to 58 for 4 and then 103 for 5. But Brook continued to flay Pakistan’s attack to all parts, reaching a 50-ball hundred by launching Afridi over cover for six and then over mid-off for four.
He was cleaned up one ball later by Afridi’s pinpoint yorker, but walked off to a standing ovation with England needing only 10 to win. They made hard work of it, gifting two wickets to Mohammad Nawaz to take the game into the 20th over, but Jofra Archer smeared Salman Mirza through midwicket as England’s dugout breathed a sigh of relief.
England’s win sealed their qualification for the semi-finals with a match to spare, and they will top the group if they can beat New Zealand in Colombo on Friday. They are yet to put a complete performance together and were shoddy in the field against Pakistan, but have now reached the semi-finals for a fifth men’s T20 World Cup in a row.
Pakistan, meanwhile, must beat Sri Lanka in their final group game and rely on other results falling their way. Despite Shahibzada Farhan’s impressive 63, they always look short on runs after they were bogged down by spin in the middle overs, with Liam Dawson’s 3 for 24 the outstanding performance among England’s attack.
Brief scores:
England 166 for 8 in 19.1 overs (Harry Brook 100, Sam Curran 16, Will Jacks 28; Shaheen Shah Afridi 4-30, Mohammad Nawaz 2-26, Usman Tarique 2-31) beat Pakistan 164 for 9 in 20 overs (Shahibzada Farhan 63, Babar Azam 25, Fakhar Zaman 25, Shadab Khan 23; Jofra Archer 2-32, Jamie Overton 2-26, Liam Dawson 3-24, Adil Rashid 1-31) by two wickets
(Cricinfo)
A major storm hit the US east coast on Monday, bringing record-breaking snow that caused disruptions for millions and thousands of flight cancellations.
Parts of Rhode Island and Massachusetts have seen nearly 37in (94cm) of snowfall, with more than 19in in New York City’s Central Park, the National Weather Service (NWS) said.
Weather warnings stretched from North Carolina to northern Maine, with some in place further north in parts of eastern Canada.
More than 600,000 properties on the US east coast endured power outages, while the Boston Globe – a major US newspaper – said it will not go to print for the first time in its 153-year history due to the storm.
(BBC)
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