The second edition of the Hundred began with some fireworks from the bat of James Vince as Southern Brave defeat Welsh Fire in the tournament opener of the Hundred at the Ageas bowl in Southampton.
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The Southern Brave begin their title defense with a dominating victory over Welsh Fire in the tournament opener. Welsh Fire were hopeless with the bat and in the field after Ryan Higgins dropped James Vince. Fire was unable to match the home bowlers’ mastery of variation as Brave were far more effective with the bat.
Southern Brave on the toss and opted to file. Craig Overton dismissed Joe Clarke on the 4th ball and for zero. The Welsh Fire batsmen struggled against the quality bowling attack of the Southern Brave. Ben Duckett, who was the leading run scorer in last year’s edition of The Hundred, was the lone warrior for Welsh Fire.
Duckett scored 40 runs in 31 balls. At the other end of the innings, Adam Zampa and Noor Ahmed added valuable runs at the backend of the innings as Welsh Fire scored 107 runs. Craig Overton and Chris Jordan were the top performers with the ball, picking up two wickets each.
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James Vince guides the Southern Braves to their first win of the season
The Southern Brave, on the back of a dominating bowling performance, had to chase a modest number of targets. James Vince was dropped on 1 in the bowling of David Payne at Deep Square Leg by Ryan Higgins.
James Vince then went on to score a match winning knock of 71 runs in 41 balls smashing 8 fours and one six over deep mid wicket. Alex Davies provide the much needed support from the other end chipping in with a valuable 26 runs in 21 balls before getting dismissed by Jake Ball.
The Southern Braves won the match by 9 wickets and with 30 balls to spare and started their campaign with a dominating win. James Vince was adjudged the man of the match.
Vince speaking on his teams performance
It was nice. The bowlers did a fantastic job to restrict them to just over 100. It was important to get a partnership going and keep the pressure on them which we managed to do. It is a complete performance to start the tournament. Perhaps it (the surface) got better under lights and we expected that to happen since it was a fresh wicket.
There are a few guys who missed out but they will have a role to play when the internationals go back on national duty. I am used to playing here, like to place it in the pockets and leave the big-hitting to the others. We like playing here and it is a great start tonight.
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