Trent Rockets vs Southern Brave, Trent Bridge
Brief scores: Southern Brave 133/5 in 100 balls (Taylor 45*; Sciver 2-33) beat Trent Rockets 110/7 in 100 balls (Sciver 44; Shrubsole 4-13) by 23 runs. Player of the Match: Anya Shrubsole.
An all-round performance from Anya Shrubsole helped Southern Brave defeat Trent Rockets by 23 runs at Trent Bridge. Shrubsole remained unbeaten on 40 before picking up four wickets to restrict the opponents to 110/7.
Put into bat, Southern Brave lost openers Danni Wyatt and Smriti Mandhana cheaply. Stafanie Taylor then held the fort from one end as two more wickets fell in quick succession. This brought Shrubsole to the crease, and she added an unbroken 77-run with Taylor. Shrubsole made 40 off 30, while Taylor's contribution was worth 45.
The Rockets, too, ended up losing both their openers by the eighth ball. Skipper Nat Sciver then helped rebuild the innings; she was ably supported by the next set of batters. However, none managed to convert the respective starts: Katherine Brunt fell for 22 and Heather Graham on 24. Sciver herself made 44 off 29 before getting bowled by Lauren Bell.
Northern Supercharger vs Welsh Fire, Headingley
Welsh Fire 130/8 in 100 balls (Matthews 30; Smith 3-14) lost to Northern Superchargers 131/4 in 85 balls (Rodrigues 92*; Cleary 1-14) by 6 wickets with 15 balls to spare. Player of the Match: Jemimah Rodrigues.
Playing for Yorkshire Diamonds in 2019, Jemimah Rodrigues had slammed the fastest hundred in the history of the Kia Super League. She returned to Yorkshire again, this time to play for the Northern Superchargers. And she celebrated that with a dazzling 43-ball 92 not out, the highest score in the Women’s Hundred so far, to guide her team to a win with 15 balls to spare against Welsh Fire at Headingley.
Chasing 131, the Superchargers were left reeling at 19/4 after 18 balls, but Rodrigues soon assumed control. After the 25-ball Powerplay, the Superchargers were 24/4. They reached 100 in 61 balls. By then she had raced to 68 from 31 balls. In all, she hit 17 fours and a six, as Alice Davidson-Richards (23*) ensured no wicket fell at the other end.
Earlier, Linsey Smith (3-14), Katie Levick (2-16), and Davidson-Richards (2-30) had restricted the Fire to 130/8. While five Fire batters reached double figures, Hayley Matthews (30 in 20 balls) was the only one to make it to 20.