Graham All-round performance end Southern Brave winning streak

On Monday, August 3, Welsh Fire earned a much-needed victory in the Women's Hundred thanks to a last-ball thriller that finally ended Southern Brave's five-match winning streak. Veteran Lizelle Lee, who had a forgettable time behind the stumps and crucially misplayed a run-out opportunity off the final ball, could not match Heather Graham's composure. Graham was able to tap the ball past short cover for the winning runs when only one was required from the final ball. The second-half of the chase see-sawed around Graham’s unbeaten knock. Tilly Corteen-Coleman had already cut open Welsh Fire’s top order, nabbing Georgia Voll and Ella McCaughan in the space of three balls to dent Brave’s chase of 122. Feeling the pinch without Sophie Devine, they slipped to 44/3 when Freya Kemp holed out to Lauren Bell at long-on. From that point, the Brave bowlers did well to wrest control of the game. Still, it wasn’t all perfect: Lee almost messed up the McCaughan stumping, and then dropped Georgia Wareham, also missing a stumping chance of Kemp. Wareham gave them a brief piece of resistance but was tricked by a Lauren Bell special—a back-of-hand slower ball barely over 50 mph—which died on the surface, knocked the stumps and gave their chase a serious rattle. Bell would return for the final set. Heather Graham, however, did not give up. A wild slog off Corteen-Coleman broke a 23-ball boundary-less period. She had already entered her 20s by then. And by the end of that set, the equation was down to 30 off 20. But Saran Glenn put the brakes on Graham’s attempt to find any space, or power behind her shots. Astonishingly, it came down to debutant Grace Thompson, who jumped out and cracked a six to the cover fence, to keep the chase alive. The gum-eating 19-year-old then casually smashed the following ball past Wong's head for a four, eliciting applause from the home crowd. She believed that Wong had her the very next ball: a review revealed that a leg-before that appeared to be level was not. Thompson’s cameo was very much on. But Wong craftily bowled a knuckle ball next up, a thick edge was sharply pouched by Corteen-Coleman. For a moment, it felt like the Brave spinner had trumped Thompson in the battle of teenagers. That made way for a second significant cameo. No.8 Niamh Holland managed to bring it down to eight off the last five. She then made it four in three by slapping a Bell slower one behind point. Bell still trusted her slower ones, but couldn’t prevent Graham from taking them through, helped along by the Lee flub. Earlier, Laura Wolvaardt and Jemimah Rodrigues kept together Brave’s innings that did not feature a single six. Grace Potts, utilising the early swing well, picked out Lizelle Lee early, out for her second duck in a row, with Maia Bouchier falling soon after. After that, Rodrigues and Wolvaardt worked together to get the ship in order before Graham killed both of them. Their 49-run stand came off 43 balls, but steadied them enough to push along towards 120. They just trickled past it, getting small contributions from Jodie Grewcock and skipper Sophie Molineux. Fire were the best team on the field, so Brave had little room for error. Skipper Wareham took three catches and effected a run-out, sending Molineux packing with a direct hit. In hindsight, Brave missed 10 chances and gave up 10 wides, which ultimately made a difference. Fire now move to fourth on the points table. Brave are still sitting pretty with 20 points but missed out on a chance in Cardiff to officially qualify for the semis.