Summary

  • Brave complete highest run chase of women's Hundred

  • Wyatt hits 69 not out off 40 balls

  • Brave have now won all three games

  • Dunkley (41 off 23) run out at non-striker's end after Maqsood drops catch

  • Phoenix 140-4: Amy Jones 42* off 25 balls, Katie Mack 31 off 22 balls

Live Reporting

Phil Dawkes and Matthew Henry

  1. Opening batter: Shafali Verma

    Shafali VermaBBC/ECB

  2. We're all set. The crowd is sparse for now but I'd expect that to fill up. I can see three young lads with green foam fingers in the stands.

    This is the Brave's first home game. Fireworks shoot into the sky as Anya Shrubsole leads her team out.

  3. Birmingham Phoenix captain Amy Jones: "We were going to have a bowl with the rain but I think it is so windy it will dry out pretty quick. It looks like a good wicket. There is probably more time than you think [as a batter] but we want to be attacking as we can."

  4. Southern Brave captain Anya Shurbsole at the toss: "We've started really well in this competition but this is a new challenge, our first game at home and we're really looking forward to it.

    "It's been amazing so far, I've absolutely loved it, we've played some really good cricket and that's the most important thing.

    "It's a fresh wicket, so will have a bit of bounce and it's really windy today so that might come into it."

  5. Two good teams. Let's hear what they had to say.

  6. The teams

    Southern Brave
    Birmingham Phoenix

  7. Brave win the toss and will bowl

    Anya Shrubsole wins the toss. There has been rain around so unsurprisingly she has elected to bowl first.

    Both teams are unchanged.

  8. It's a double-header this Friday, between the aforementioned Southern Brave and the Birmingham Phoenix.

    So Danni Wyatt, Smriti Mandhana, Stafanie Taylor and Anya Shrubsole versus Shafali Verma, Erin Burns, Kirstie Gordon and Georgia Elwiss.

    And that's only one half of the action.

    Later on we'll see that lightning Brave pace attack giving the likes of Liam Livingstone and Moeen Ali something to think about.

  9. We're now starting to get a sense of who are the frontrunners for the inaugural Hundred.

    In the men's side of the competition, the Trent Rockets have made the perfect launch, through a combination of top-order hitting, top-draw spin and some unexpected pace heroics.

    On the women's side the Northern Superchargers have started well, but so have one of today's sides - the Southern Brave. They can go top of the table with victory on home soil this afternoon.

  10. There's a gale blowing across the Ageas Bowl. Not ideal conditions by any means for this meeting between Southern Brave and Birmingham Phoenix.

  11. Thursday was all about the Rockets...

    Watch remarkable head cam footage of wicketkeeper catch

    But will today be a Brave or a Phoenix day?