Southern Brave, twice the beaten finalists in the Women’s Hundred, started their push to go one better with an emphatic 27-run victory over Trent Rockets in the opening match of the 2023 edition.
India’s Smriti Mandhana led the way for Brave with a powerful 55 off 36 balls, backed up by Maia Bouchier’s 31 from 18 and Danni Wyatt’s 27 from 27 before Chloe Tryon’s 23 from 10 added late impetus.
Bryony Smith took two for 34 and Kirstie Gordon a tidy one for 17 but wides and no-balls handed Brave 13 free runs.
England star Nat Sciver-Brunt blazed 49 off 31 balls as Rockets tried to overhaul Brave’s 157, but with Mumbai Indians team-mate Harmanpreet Kaur’s 22 the next highest score they were never in serious contention, 18-year-old seamer Mary Taylor starring with the ball for Brave with three for 18 on her competition debut.
Put in, Brave did not find the boundary until ball 18 but with Rockets conceding 11 of those wides in the powerplay rattled nonetheless to a healthy 45 without loss from the first 25, Mandhana picking up back-to-back fours off Naomi Dattani before launching Katherine Sciver-Brunt over wide long-on for the first six of the afternoon.
Wyatt’s classy 28 off 27 ended when she miscued Smith into the off side before a second six by Mandhana straight down the ground off the same bowler took the Brave to 79-1 from 50 balls.
Bouchier maintained the tempo with 31 off 18 including a swept six off Smith before slicing Alana King to short third and the departure of Mandhana in Smith’s next set, pulling straight to backward square with no addition to the score, checked Brave’s ambitions at 128-3 with two new batters at the crease for the last 18 balls.
Wickets tumbled as Dattani yorked Freya Kemp, Gordon had Georgia Adams caught at long off and Maitlan Brown was run out off the last ball but Tryon’s 23 off 10 balls swelled the total to 157.
The Rockets’ chase started horribly with Smith run-out first ball after some almost comical dithering by Lizelle Lee and the home side found no momentum in the powerplay, emerging with a paltry 21-2 after Dattani had picked out deep square leg off Taylor, who added a second wicket as Lee top-edged to point.
Now Harmanpreet Kaur joined Nat Sciver-Brunt at the crease with a heavy weight on both their shoulders, one that was barely lighter at the halfway point with 110 needed at 2.20 runs per ball.
Kaur tried to raise the home crowd’s hopes by slogging Adams over midwicket for six but was out next ball, attempting a repeat that went straight up in the air, wicketkeeper Rhianna Southby taking a comfortable catch.
Fran Wilson soon followed, finding Bouchier at long-on, after which Sciver-Brunt went on a mini-charge with four fours and a six in the space of six balls only for it all to end tamely when she chipped straight back into the hands of her old international team-mate Anya Shrubsole.
Taylor came back to claim a third victim as Jo Gardner sliced to cover point as Rockets finished on 130-7.
