An Emma Lamb-inspired Birmingham Phoenix got their Hundred campaign off to a winning start against their local rivals Trent Rockets at Edgbaston in front of a decent-looking crowd of just over 10,000. Phoenix won by 14 runs.
It was a dominant top-order innings, at times helped by some ground fielding from the Rockets that was far from perfect. While catches weren’t dropped, there was one occasion where two fielders each waited for the other to collect, and the ball snuck past both of them.
It has been a standout season for Lamb, who has won her place back in the England side as well as scored consistently for Lancashire. Batting between Georgia Voll and Ellyse Perry, some of the pressure to be the batter to get the innings firing was eased. Lamb was able to relax into her knock.
Alexa Stonehouse and Cassidy McCarthy bowled tidily in the powerplay, and boundaries weren’t easy to come by. A wicket wouldn’t fall until the introduction of Alana King, the Aussie leg-spinner, who duly bowled her international teammate Voll. She swept across the line and missed, out for 19 from 16 balls that hinted at more to come.
Lamb was the second to go with the score on 87, of which she had 55. It sparked a bit of a collapse in the Phoenix middle order. Four wickets fell for 20, and suddenly they were 111 for five.
Where the Hundred works best is it gives domestic players, young and experienced, a chance. In Alisa Lister and Marie Kelly, Phoenix were grateful. The pair put on an unbeaten 37 from the last 22 balls to take them up to 148 for five.
Lister, the young Scottish international, is starting to show just how capable she is at counterattacking with the bat. She backs up her shot selection with conviction. Kelly, in an unaccustomed role down the order, had the licence to hit. Her 23 not out took just ten balls to accumulate.
It would take a fantastic effort from the Rockets to chase down 149 from their hundred balls. Not that they didn’t have the firepower, but it would be a record chase for the Rockets.
Grace Scrivens scored just two runs from the opening partnership as Bryony Smith dominated the stand of 35 from the first 24 balls. It would need Smith to carry on bludgeoning the ball to the boundary. Yet in a middle order that contained Nat Sciver-Brunt, Ash Gardner and Heather Graham, it was only the England captain that got going. She was dropped on 13 by Hannah Baker.
Baker made amends by taking the wickets of Gardner for two and Graham for eight. Sciver-Brunt was still there, and while the Rockets always had a chance, by the time she reached her fifty off just 32 balls they were fast running out of time.
With 20 still needed from the last five balls, Sciver-Brunt swept behind square leg, only to find a diving Millie Taylor, who looked relieved to take the catch. The Phoenix looked the more balanced of the teams, but it’s early in the competition and the Rockets will have taken plenty of positives as well.
