The Hundred Men’s 2022, Match 22 Review: Southern Brave register emphatic win over demoralized Welsh Fire

The Southern Brave outclassed Welsh Fire comprehensively by nine wickets in Match 22 of the Hundred Men’s 2022 encounter that was played at the Sophia Gardens in Cardiff on Monday, August 2022. This was a crucial fixture for both the bottom-placed sides and by the virtue of a big win, the Southern Brave have managed to make some advancements in the points table. They have two victories and four points from the six matches played at an NRR of -1.750.

The Welsh Fire on the other hand are in all sorts of trouble as they are yet to open their account in the ongoing edition of the Hundred. With his latest defeat, they have lost all of their five games and have a dismal net run rate of -1.687. The Josh Cobb-led side would be hoping to rise from the bottom at the earliest before it is too late.

Paul Stirling’s thunderous batting leaves Welsh Fire clueless

The Southern Brave skipper James Vince called it right at the toss and elected to bowl first. The decision was spot on as Welsh kept losing wickets at regular intervals. In fact, they lost their top order early as the trio of Jacob Bethell, captain Cobb, and, Ben Duckett departed without troubling the scorers which completely broke the backbone of their side. However, a small resistance from the middle order duo of Leus du Plooy (37) and Matthew Critchley (32*) helped Welsh Fire in posting 129/8.

George Garton was the pick of the bowlers for the Southern Brave with figures of 3/7. He was well supported by James Fuller 2/31 while Michael Hogan and Jake Lintott finished with one wicket each.

In reply, Paul Stirling meant business right from the word ‘go’ as he tormented the Welsh bowling attack and took them to the cleaners at regular intervals. He was involved in a 121-run opening stand along with South African wicketkeeper-batter Quinton de Kock before the latter was dismissed for a run-a-ball 37 by his countryman Dwaine Pretorius. Stirling successfully got his side over the line as he remained unbeaten on 74 runs off 42 deliveries.