Southern Brave Men 135/7 fall to Welsh Fire 138/4 by six wickets

Welsh Fire produced an all-round performance to claim their maiden win over

Southern Brave in the Brave’s first game of the campaign.

Phil Salt was impressive with the bat, scoring a composed, unbeaten 47 to break the

back of the chase, clearing the ropes at midwicket from a length ball from Chris

Jordan to clinch the win with two balls to spare.

While the Fire always had the edge, it shouldn’t have been that close. Salt’s third-

wicket partnership of 49 with Rachin Ravindra (24 from 16) looked to have settled

matters, but when Ravindra holed out to the leg-spin of Nikhil Chaudhary, the Fire

stuttered to the line.

With 20 balls remaining, Fire needed just 19. But Adil Rashid’s final five balls went

for just a single to ignite the crowd of 8,452, and when Jofra Archer’s follow-up 10

deliveries leaked just nine runs, it left the Fire needing nine from five, but they

managed to get over the line.

David Miller took some time to get going but finished strongly for Brave before

departing in the penultimate delivery with a 35-ball 44, which lifted the hosts to 135-

7. 18-year-old Thomas Rew helped rebuild their innings with a flashy 41 from 30

balls.

Speaking after the game, Chris Jordan praised Rew’s performance: “It was

really cool [to see him perform], I had the pleasure of working with him in the

Caribbean, and to give him his Hundred debut today and him hit his first ball through

the covers for four it was almost written, you know.

“I thought he also showed good temperament in a in a difficult period where he was

getting dotted up and he didn’t panic at all and kept trying to rotate and build a

partnership, so a lot of positives from his performance today.”

Jordan also praised the atmosphere at Utilita Bowl: “It’s one of the great things

about Utilita Bowl, especially at the back end of the game. We’ve had so many

special moments here over the years, where we’ve won some tight games and we’ve

sent the crowd home in a great mood smiling. It wasn’t to be tonight and looking to

bounce back on Saturday.”

Next up, the Brave head to SunRisers Leeds on Saturday, 25 July.