BBC viewers will finally get to see Welsh Fire’s women play this weekend. The Cardiff side weren’t allotted a live broadcast from the group games, unfortunate given they have contributed most of the highlights on their side of the tournament. On Sunday, they secured their place in the knockout stages, having lost one of their first six games, and will now face Northern Superchargers – to whom they lost on Tuesday – in Saturday’s eliminator at the Oval.
Their five wins this season are almost twice as many as they had previously registered in the tournament’s history. Last year brought a single consolatory victory, although that was one more than the men’s side managed. If wooden spoons were looking for a brand ambassador, Welsh Fire would be it.
Under their new head coach, Mike Hussey, the men have raised their game and this year’s close fight meant that mid-table respectability has kept them in the hunt for the eliminator. The women, meanwhile, have been a genuine sensation. They have made three of the four highest totals, the fourth scored against them in a game they lost by one run off the final ball. Their strike bowler Shabnim Ismail became the second woman to take a Hundred hat-trick. As for Tammy Beaumont – well, she has been doing emphatically Tammy Beaumont things.
Welsh Fire’s captain has described her reinvention as a big-hitting opener as “version 3.0”, having first remodelled her game for England under Mark Robinson in 2016, then again under Jon Lewis last winter. Her mesospheric form in the Ashes, when she became England’s first double-centurion, has proven equally heavenly in the Hundred. Her 118 off 61 balls against Trent Rockets wasn’t just the first Hundred century for a woman, it was the highest score in either competition, surpassing Will Smeed’s previous chart-topping effort for Oval Invincibles by 10 runs.
Against London Spirit on Sunday she cut the first ball of the match for four and did the same off the second. The fourth was line and length: she danced down the pitch and sent it back over Danielle Gibson’s head. When Sarah Glenn took over, her first and third balls were swept for more boundaries. After the 25th delivery of the innings – which Beaumont dispatched with a swivelling pull – Welsh Fire had 53 runs, the highest Powerplay in the women’s Hundred.
“She’s been leading from the front brilliantly with both bat and her captaincy and it fills the group with positivity,” says Welsh Fire’s coach, Gareth Breese. He and Beaumont led the side throughout last year’s annus horribilis; Beaumont has admitted she felt far more relaxed captaining this year: “What’s the worst that can happen? I’ve already been through it.”
Atmospheric change may have played its part. “We’ve managed to create an environment where everybody’s enjoying themselves,” says Breese, but savvy signings in the draft didn’t hurt. Ismail’s arrival from the reigning omni-champs Oval Invincibles has given Fire the chance to turn games around, as when Birmingham Phoenix, one wicket down, needed four to win from three balls.
After a disappointing early spell – and with Tess Flintoff and Amy Jones on 55 and 48 respectively – Ismail reassured her teammates. “I’ve got this,” she said. She proceeded to take a wicket with every remaining delivery. “Her character has been one of the standouts for us, the way she handles things and takes things in her stride,” says Breese. “That was such a game of emotions and it shows how important it is to hang in to the end.”
Such moments have inspired confidence throughout the team. “There’s not been just one or two performing, we’ve had loads of options across the board,” says Breese. The game against Spirit provided a perfect example: after Beaumont’s dismissal for 40 Hayley Matthews, returning from a shoulder injury, kept the score rollicking along, while Sophia Dunkley put in another of her increasingly impressive all-round showings.
Dunkley followed her best Hundred score – 68 off 48 – with two wickets with her leg-spin, including her England captain, Heather Knight. Freya Davies, Claire Nicholas, Alex Griffiths and Alex Hartley demonstrated the range within the Fire’s bowling attack and their sharp fielding made the opposition look raggedy by comparison.
The final element to this dragon-roar of a comeback has been increased interaction between the men and women. A joint-event barbecue at the start of the season brought them closer together and the men support the women not just from the balcony, but at practice.
“Apart from friends and family they’re our biggest fans,” says Breese. “The lads have been unbelievable and that team culture across the franchise has been brilliant.”
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