Rockets overpower Fire to keep playoff hopes intact

An all-round display from Ashleigh Gardner along with Alana King's three-wicket haul helped Trent Rockets beat Welsh Fire by 23 runs in the Women's Hundred fixture and stay in contention for the playoffs.

Rockets ended with 145/6 batting first, with contributions from Bryony Smith (38), Nat Sciver-Brunt (38) and Gardner (36). After losing openers off the 17th and 36th balls, Sciver-Brunt and Gardner added 67 runs for the third wicket, both scoring at over run-a-ball to drive forward the initiative. Both fell in the space of seven balls but a couple of timely hits from Heather Graham helped Rockets end up with a good total. Freya Davies finished with three wickets.

Fire were rocked early in the chase when captain Tammy Beaumont was castled by Alexa Stonehouse. Hayley Matthews and Sophia Dunkley added 43 runs for the second wicket but both of them were dismissed by Gardner, who finished with 2 for 28. There were no partnerships of note later in the innings as Alana King found turn and bounce on the Cardiff surface and picked 3 for 17 as Fire were restricted to 122/9 in 100 balls.

Fire, who were already eliminated coming into this contest, now face table-toppers Southern Brave in their last fixture whereas Rockets have a match in hand against Birmingham Phoenix, although Gardner's team will be eliminated if Birmingham Phoenix lose to Manchester Originals in the second fixture tonight.

Brief Scores: Trent Rockets 145/6 (Smith 38, Sciver-Brunt 38, Gardner 36; Davies 3-26) beat Welsh Fire 122/9 (Dunkley 26; King 3-17) by 23 runs.