The Hundred Womens Competition comes to an end with the Southern Brave women winning their first title with a dominating victory over the Northern Superchargers women by 34 runs at Lords. With losing 2 wickets inside the first 10 balls the Southern Brave Women were struggling at 28-2 in the first 25 balls. Despite the slow start Dani Wyatt’s wonderful half-century and crucial cameos from Adams and Kemp made sure to get the Brave women’s innings on track and get them to a defendable total of 139 on a tricky surface.
The Northern Superchargers women never came back in the match in the second innings. None of the Superchargers women batters got going at all and were struggling against Brave women bowlers who were taking wickets at regular intervals and bowled out the Superchargers women for just 105 winning their maiden Hundred Womens title after heartbreaking finals in the last two years and great fairy tale ending to the great career of Anya Shrubsole.
Northern Superchargers Women: Wickets Tumble in the Final Showdown
The pitch at the Mecca of cricket was certainly not a batting paradise for any of the teams but we cannot overlook the poor batting approach by Superchargers women batters. The batters were mostly a victim of poor shot selection and poor planning. Marie Kelly’s early misjudgment and Phoebe Litchfield’s aggressive gamble marked the downfall, the former was bowled while playing across a swinging delivery and the latter caught at deep extra cover after successive boundaries.
The wickets of skipper Hollie Armitage and Bass Heath were almost similar where both the batters fell while chasing a tossed-up delivery outside off stump and were caught outside the crease. The wickets of Davidson Richards and Wareham were due to some poor shots played by both the batters where Richards was trapped in front of the stumps playing across the line and Wareham mistimed a full toss and was caught at long-on.
Jemimah Rodrigues was the only batter who had a start but with the mounting pressure holes out he tried to clear extra cover. The last three wickets told the story of the Superchargers women’s batting where Dobson becomes the third victim of the flighted delivery outside off, Higham scooping a slower delivery to a short fine and a terrible mixup to end the innings for the Northern Superchargers women.
Conclusion
It has been a wonderful season for Southern Brave women and they will be happy to come out as winners after losing two finals in a row. The Northern Superchargers women on the other hand were not the best team on the day they let the match go in the middle overs which allowed the Brave women to get 10-15 more runs after a slow start and had a terrible day with the bat where it mattered the most.
In conclusion, it was a one-sided affair where Southern Brave women were at their dominant best like they had been all season and gave a brilliant send-off to their Captain Anya Shrubsole. Their comeback in the middle overs, disciplined and attacking bowling in the second innings and a great display of fielding were enough to make them the champions of the Hundred Womens Competition 2023. This has been a dream come true for them after heartbreaking final defeats in the last two seasons.