Southern Brave captain James Vince: "It's good to get going again and hopefully we can build on the success of last year. It's a fresh pitch so we're not quite sure what a good score will be, so decided to bowl first.

"We have a familiar group so other teams will be aware of our plans but we are excited to get going on. We have young spinner Rehan Ahmed in for his debut and we are looking forward to seeing what he can do. Marcus Stoinis comes in for his debut as well."

Matthew Henry
BBC Sport at the Ageas Bowl

Hello from Southampton.

This game was all-but sold out earlier this afternoon with just a couple of hundred returned tickets available.

The first thing to say is there's a lot of green around this ground. The merch is certainly one thing organisers have got right.

The defending champions and hosts fancy having a chase tonight.

James Vince wants to put early pressure on Welsh Fire.

They are taking a while to bring us the toss and team news.

I'll bring you who is batting first when I know...

Tonight's game is LIVE on BBC TV too!

You can watch at the top of this page and BBC iPlayer, while the action will start on BBC Two at 19:00 BST.

Join us. It should be a cracker.

The men's tournament opens tonight with holders Southern Brave facing Welsh Fire in Southampton.

The women's competition is slightly condensed this year because of the Commonwealth Games and will kick off next Thursday on 11 August.

It's almost time to out to middle to find out who will be batting first...

Evening!

How are you all?

Ready for more top-level cricket with all the best domestic players and great international players?

That's what we've got over the next four weeks as the second edition of The Hundred rolls into town.

Enjoy it! It should be a lot of fun.

Ready for more of this?

Of course you are. Let's go.