Welsh Fire 123 for 6 (Bryce 36, Sutherland 31*) beat Northern Superchargers 112 for 6 (Wolvaardt 41, Armitage 40, Carey 3-18) by 11 runs
They were singing ‘Hymns and Arias’ at Sophia Gardens in the end as Tammy Beaumont’s side came back from the dead to notch Welsh Fire’s first win in either the women’s or men’s Hundred this season, as they beat Northern Superchargers by 11 runs.
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While Fire broke their duck for the season after four successive defeats to fall out of the running for the knockout phase, Superchargers are still in with an outside shot of reaching the top three but will need a huge win against unbeaten Southern Brave in their final game and for other results to fall in their favour.
Beaumont won the toss and opted to bat first as her side chased that elusive first win of the season. She then went out to open with Scottish international Sarah Bryce and helped to steer her side to 32 off the 25 balls in the powerplay, but was bowled by Jenny Gunn.
The experienced Rachel Haynes, returning to action after illness forced her to miss the last two defeats, didn’t last long, scoring four runs off her 10 balls to leave the Fire 56 for 2 at the half-way mark.
Those runs, along with the 19 scored by Carey, proved vital as Fire reached 123 for 6. That gave them something to bowl at on a tricky wicket and they got off to a great start: Alyssa Healy and Bess Heath fell early to leave Superchargers struggling at 12 for 2 off the first 13 balls.
Wolvaardt and Armitage took Superchargers close but when Wolvaardt, who had scored an unbeaten 90 in the win over Manchester Originals last time out, holed out at deep mid-on off, the late wobble was on. Beaumont’s team turned the screw and came up with that long awaited win – and celebrated with a sing-song with the crowd.