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Southern Brave Women made it four wins from four in The Hundred Women’s 2026 with a 24-run victory over Birmingham Phoenix at The Rose Bowl. Lizelle Lee’s 43 off 28 balls and Maia Bouchier’s 45 off 31 set up 140 for 3, before Sophie Molineux’s 2-24 strangled a Phoenix chase that promised much after Davina Perrin’s 52.
Southampton, England: You know a team is good when they can win without being at their best. Southern Brave Women were not at their best on Thursday afternoon at The Rose Bowl — not by the standards they have set across this extraordinary unbeaten run. Lee was explosive before the ball softened. Bouchier was punchy when it mattered. Rodrigues added three fours from the final five balls to tilt the total just enough. But there was a period through the middle overs when 140 felt par rather than imposing on a surface where the vast outfield kept boundaries honest and the softer ball gripped through the pitch.
Phoenix, to their credit, bowled well enough to make it feel that way. They simply could not bat well enough to take advantage of it.
Lee and Bouchier Set the Table
Birmingham Phoenix won the toss and, reading the conditions at The Rose Bowl correctly, elected to field first. For the first 25 balls, their decision looked sound. The powerplay was respectably controlled — 44 for none in the mandatory phase, not the kind of total that blows games open — with Lee and Bouchier navigating carefully while looking for the right ball to attack.
When that ball arrived, Lee attacked it without hesitation. The South African opener, who has been one of The Hundred’s most consistent match-winners across the last three seasons, hit two sixes and three fours in a powerplay-closing burst that pushed Brave to their first fifty from just 30 balls. She finished with 43 from 28 deliveries — the only two sixes of the entire match both belonging to her, both clearing the rope with authority — before Alice Capsey’s variation accounted for her.
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Bouchier, who had played tidily in Lee’s slipstream, moved through the gears as the innings reached its final third. Her 45 from 31 balls was an innings that complemented rather than competed with Lee’s aggression, filling the gaps that Lee’s departure might have created with a series of crisp drives and well-placed cuts. Rodrigues then added further impetus — three fours in the final five balls the decisive contribution that pushed Brave from an achievable total to a demanding one. Southern Brave finished at 140 for 3.
Capsey was the pick of the Phoenix bowlers with 1 for 23, her variations and change of pace the most consistent examination Brave faced. The rest of the attack was tidy rather than threatening.
The Chase That Promised and Then Faded
Phoenix’s reply began well enough to keep the Rose Bowl crowd engaged. Tammy Beaumont and Davina Perrin, opening together, reached the powerplay without loss — 27 from the first 25 balls, a platform that suggested the chase was alive. Perrin looked particularly assured from the outset, reading the length quickly and using her feet against the spinners with the footwork that has made her one of Phoenix’s most dependable top-order options this season.
She brought up her fifty from 40 balls — five fours, the innings built on timing rather than power — and at the strategic timeout Phoenix were 87 for 1 with Beaumont gone for 22 and Capsey newly arrived. Fifty-four needed from 30 balls, nine wickets in hand. Chaseable.
Then the middle order forgot how to chase.
It began with Capsey. Having bowled impressively, she arrived at the crease needing to bat impressively and found instead a Lauren Bell slower ball that she could not resist — skewing it to extra cover off her ninth delivery for a contribution of eight. Sophie Molineux, who bowled with excellent variation and finished with 2 for 24, maintained the pressure at one end as Bell and the rest of the Brave attack squeezed from the other. Perrin, left without a reliable partner, could not accelerate at the rate the equation demanded. She was eventually dismissed for 52 — a wonderful innings in a losing cause — and Phoenix’s tail added little. They finished at 116 for 5, 24 runs short.
“Our Bowlers Don’t Get Enough Credit”
Lizelle Lee was thoughtful in her post-match assessment of a game that had been closer than the margin suggested.
“I think it was better to bat against the new ball out there. It came off the wicket a bit easier and as soon as the ball got a bit softer, it became harder to play. So I think our batters did really well at the end there to get us up to a good score, and I think that’s what set us apart,” she said.
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“Our bowlers are not getting enough credit. They’ve bowled extremely well, they get us out of everything. Everyone’s gelling pretty well and we seem to be able to get over the line in tough situations.”
She was right on both counts. Sophie Molineux’s 2 for 24 — built on flight, variation and the ability to deceive batters on a surface that offered turn — was the performance that won the match after the batting had set it up. And the collective character that Lee described — the ability to get over the line in tight situations, to find something when the match demands it — has been the defining quality of an unbeaten campaign that now stands at four wins from four.
The Table Picture
Southern Brave Women sit alone at the top of The Hundred Women’s 2026 competition with 16 points — four wins, four games, maximum return. Manchester Super Giants Women are second on 10 points with three wins from three. Birmingham Phoenix Women remain at the bottom with two points from four matches, their sole return a single point from an abandoned fixture. They have lost the three games that have been completed.
Phoenix have the batting — Perrin’s 52 showed that much on Thursday. What they need, with half the group stage still to play, is a complete performance. Southern Brave, on this evidence, are not providing the template for how to stop them.
Scores: Southern Brave Women 140/3 (100 balls) — Lizelle Lee 43 (28), Maia Bouchier 45 (31), Jemimah Rodrigues 28 (18); Alice Capsey 1-23
Birmingham Phoenix Women 116/5 (100 balls) — Davina Perrin 52 (43), Tammy Beaumont 22 (23); Sophie Molineux 2-24
Result: Southern Brave Women won by 24 runs
Player of the Match: Lizelle Lee (Southern Brave Women) — 43 (28)
The Hundred Women’s 2026 standings (after Match 13):
1st – Southern Brave Women — 4 wins, 16 pts (unbeaten)
2nd – Manchester Super Giants Women — 3 wins, 10 pts
8th – Birmingham Phoenix Women — 0 wins, 2 pts (bottom)
