Cricket Highlights, 03 Aug: The Hundred 2022 (Match 1) – Southern Brave vs Welsh Fire

Southern Brave vs Welsh Fire (Match 1) – Highlights

The Hundred 2022 tournament has commenced yesterday (Wednesday), where Southern Brave started their campaign with a massive 9-wicket win with 31 balls in hand by defeating the defending champions Welsh Fire. Captain James Vince played a key role in this victory of the Southern Brave. He was adjudged Player of the Match for his match-winning innings of 71 off 41 balls.

Southern Brave’s captain James Vince won the toss and decided to field first, and Welsh Fire came down to bat. Coming down to bat, the Welsh Fire managed to get only 107 runs after losing 7 wickets in the stipulated 100-ball due to the bowling cannon of the Southern Brave bowlers.

The Welsh Fire team started to lose wickets from the beginning of their batting. Opener Joe Clarke fell victim to Craig Overton on the 4th ball of the innings before opening to score. The Welsh Fire camp got a bit of a scare when Tom Banton (6) and Ollie Pope (10) returned to the dugout in the team’s 16 runs.

Then Ben Duckett tried to turn around with the team. But no one could give him worthy company. He single-handedly hold onto one end of the wicket and continued to take the match forward. In between Sam Hain made 9 and captain, Josh Cobb got out after scoring 5 runs.

Ben Duckett returned to the pavilion after playing a fighting innings of 40 off 31 balls, with 5 boundaries. But after his departure, no other batsman on the team could play a big innings. Ryan Higgins scored just 11 runs off 18 balls. In the end, thanks to the batting of Adam Zampa and Noor Ahmad, the team score could cross 100 runs.

Adam Zampa scored 10 off 10 balls and Noor Ahmed remained unbeaten on 9 off 4 balls. Craig Overton and Chris Jordan took 2 wickets each for the Southern Braves. Besides, Jake Lintott and Michael Hogan took 1 wicket each.

After coming down to chase an easy target of 108 runs, Southern Brave’s two openers Alex Davies and James Vince got off to a flying start. These two together scored 72 runs off 49 balls in the opening pair. Welsh Fire’s hopes of victory began to fade from the start of the second innings courtesy of their storming batting. The Southern Braves on the other hand continued to move towards the winning goal very quickly.

Opener Alex Davies returned to the dressing room after getting 26 runs off 21 balls in 4 boundaries. Then captain James Vince made a pair of 37 runs with Marcus Stoinis for the 2nd wicket. Where 31 runs came from Vince’s bat. The Southern Brave did not lose any more wickets after that. They reached the port of victory with the loss of one wicket in just 69 balls.

With 8 fours and 1 six, James Vince left the field after playing an unbeaten innings of 71 runs off 41 balls. Besides, Marcus Stoinis remained unbeaten with 6 runs from 8 balls. After winning this match, Southern Brave is at the top of the points table. On the other hand, Welsh Fire is at the bottom of the points table with this defeat in their first match of the edition.

Southern Brave vs Welsh Fire Scoreboard

Welsh Fire – 107/7 (100)

Southern Brave – 109/1 (69)

Result – Southern Brave won by 9 wickets

Player of the match – James Vince

Southern Brave vs Welsh Fire Playing XIs