The fireworks very much happened before play started as the second season of the Hundred got under way with a deeply one-sided win for the inaugural champions, Southern Brave, who cantered over the line with 30 balls to spare to win by nine wickets. Welsh Fire mustered barely a spark throughout as they lost first the toss, then a succession of wickets and finally, inevitably, the match.
The Brave captain James Vince turned his side’s run chase, never the most daunting, into a gentle procession with an unbeaten innings of 71, the only thing stopping his evening from flirting with perfection coming when he was denied the chance of scoring the winning runs by Jake Ball, with the scores level, bowling a no ball.
