Phil Salt’s Heroics Earn Welsh Fire Opening Win
Phil Salt‘s measured unbeaten 47 off 37 helped Welsh Fire win by six wickets over Southern Brave at The Rose Bowl in Southampton to kick off their Men’s Hundred campaign. Thomas Rew and David Miller both scored 40s, but Fire’s disciplined bowling held Brave to 135 for 7.
Salt then formed useful partnerships with Joe Root and Rachin Ravindra, but there was a stutter toward the end before Fire crossed the line with two deliveries to spare.
Matthew Short set the pace for the chase with four boundaries, three from Luke Wood and one from Jofra Archer. Short, on the other hand, took advantage of Daniel Worrall’s sluggish and wide delivery, scoring 20 off 15.
Root and Salt scored 31 runs off 26 pitches to keep Fire on track. Barring a couple of fours for Root, the boundaries came infrequently, but the second wicket pair ensured consistent strike rotation to keep the scoreboard moving.
The partnership, however, came to a sudden end as a mix-up ended in Root’s run-out for a run-a-ball 15.
Fire were 60 for 2 in 47 balls at that stage and went to 109 for 3 in 73 balls owing to the 49-run connection between Salt and Ravindra that came off only 27 balls.
Ravindra got the much-needed boundaries, while Salt broke a 25-ball boundary drought by hitting a Wood delivery over long on for a four, followed by another boundary to take Fire past 100 in 70 balls.
Nikhil Chaudhary generated some tension in the opposition camp by dismissing Ravindra and Jordan Jox, followed by quiet sets from Adil Rashid and Archer, leaving Fire needing 9 runs off 5 overs. Asa Tribe then hit Chris Jordan for four, and Salt finished with a six over midwicket.
Earlier, Fire put on a terrific bowling display after deciding to field on a tacky track, with their seamers carrying out their plans effectively. Sam Cook struck early with a leg cutter, bowling Jamie Smith for three.
Ben McKinney struggled to get started and eventually fell to Marco Jansen for a nine-ball four. Meanwhile, 18-year-old Rew looked much more fluent, scoring 41 off 30 balls in his Hundred debut. This includes five fours and one six.
Miller, on the other hand, struggled to score at first, requiring 18 deliveries to get to 10. The strain on Brave increased as Rew dropped to Jansen and Matt Short dismissed Tristan Stubbs cheaply, thanks to a brilliant boundary catch by Ben Kellaway.
Miller finally broke loose with 34 from his next 17 balls, including a six off Lockie Ferguson, while Chaudhary added three fours toward the end. The final set of five was not particularly profitable, and Miller’s tenure came to an end on the penultimate ball when Ravindra delivered a direct hit.
Brief scores: Southern Brave 135/7 in 100 balls (David Miller 44, Thomas Rew 41; Marco Jansen 2-17) were defeated by Welsh Fire 138/4 in 98 balls (Phil Salt 47*, Rachin Ravindra 24; Nikhil Chaudhary 2-19) by six wickets.
