The Hundred men’s competition, Utilita Bowl
Southern Brave 128-8 (100 balls): Stoinis 34 (26); Rehan 3-25
Birmingham Phoenix 116-9 (100 balls): Smeed 35 (28); Wood 3-24
Southern Brave won by 12 runs
Scorecard. Table
Wickets from three consecutive deliveries helped Southern Brave close out a first win of the season in The Hundred, beating Birmingham Phoenix by 12 runs at the Utilita Bowl.
With Phoenix needing 14 to win, Luke Wood had Ben Dwarshuis and Scott Currie caught off the first two balls of the final set.
Saqib Mahmood was then run out by Adil Rashid’s direct hit and Brave conceded just one single off the next two balls as Phoenix closed on 116-9, well short of their target of 129.
Will Smeed top-scored for Phoenix, reaching 35 before he became Wood’s first victim, the left-arm seamer finishing with figures of 3-24.
Marcus Stoinis took 2-16, removing Joe Clarke and Laurie Evans, while the England duo of Rashid (1-18) and Jofra Archer (1-21) kept it tight.
Having been put into bat, Brave lost Jamie Smith, caught by Mitch Owen off Dwarshuis, after seven balls of their innings.
They failed to put on a partnership greater than 33, with Ben McKinney (18), Tom Abell (22), Stoinis (34) and David Miller (24) all chipping in before getting out, while Rehan Ahmed was the pick of the Phoenix bowlers with 3-25.
Brave lost four middle-order wickets for 12 runs as the innings moved towards its conclusion, before a five-ball 10 from Wood, batting at number 10, helped them to a winning score of 128-8.
The win allows Brave to leapfrog Phoenix and rise off the bottom of the table, moving into seventh on net run-rate.