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Sophie Molineux followed a brisk 22 with the bat with a match-winning 3 for 14 as Southern Brave Women defended 126 to beat Welsh Fire Women by 8 runs at the Utilita Bowl in The Hundred Women’s Competition 2026, inflicting a stunning collapse on the Fire who lost five wickets for six runs in 13 balls.
Sophie Molineux lifted the T20 World Cup just a fortnight ago. On Wednesday evening at the Utilita Bowl she showed exactly why she was in the thick of it — delivering a match-winning 3 for 14 to dismantle a Welsh Fire chase that had looked overwhelmingly comfortable before it fell apart in one of the most dramatic collapses of the competition’s short history.
Southampton: There are moments in sport when confidence becomes a trap. Welsh Fire had the chase in hand — 80 for 1 off 59 balls, Georgia Voll and Freya Kemp motoring along, the asking rate well within reach. Southern Brave’s 126 for 7 had seemed like a target that told the story of a difficult surface rather than an imposing innings. Then the wickets came, and they came in a rush. Welsh Fire lost five wickets for six runs in just 13 balls to gift Southern Brave a stunning 8-run victory and the opening points of their 2026 Hundred campaign.
Wolvaardt and Lee Lay the Platform
Welsh Fire won the toss and chose to bowl first, and for much of the Brave’s innings it looked like the right call. The Utilita Bowl surface offered uneven bounce, and the Fire’s attack — bolstered by the world-class Sophie Devine at the top — made life difficult from the start.
Lizelle Lee made 31 and Laura Wolvaardt an unbeaten 45 — the two South Africans providing Brave with their spine on a challenging pitch. Wolvaardt in particular was watchful and intelligent, reading the conditions better than anyone else in the Brave XI and constructing an innings that never abandoned its principles. Around them, wickets fell with regularity. Maia Bouchier went early for 28, and Jemimah Rodrigues — the Indian star who had been earmarked as a key threat for the Brave — fell for a frustrating single-figure score.
Molineux chipped in with 22 from 16 balls in the middle order, adding vital impetus before Jodie Grewcock and Issy Wong kept the scoreboard ticking. The fall of wickets told its own story: five, four, three-ball clusters in the final third of the innings suggesting a surface that grew trickier as the evening progressed. The total of 126 for 7 was competitive but far from dominant — enough to defend on the night, but only just.
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Voll and Kemp Threaten to Cruise Home
Welsh Fire’s reply began in the worst possible fashion. Ella McCaughan was bowled by Molineux without scoring, leaving the visitors immediately on the back foot. But what followed was a partnership that threatened to rewrite the evening’s narrative entirely.
Georgia Voll and Freya Kemp, fresh from her standout World Cup campaign, accelerated nicely to have the visitors 80 for 1 from 59 balls, with the game seemingly in their hands. Voll was composed and authoritative, Kemp dynamic and willing to take risks — the kind of partnership that wins matches in The Hundred without the need for late heroics. The crowd at the Utilita Bowl, having already watched the men’s match end in a Welsh Fire win, sensed the evening was about to produce a full double. ESPNcricinfo
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The Collapse That Changed Everything
Then things started to happen — rapidly, and almost all at once. Rodrigues pulled off a direct hit to run Kemp out for 39, Molineux got the big wicket of Sophie Devine, and the Fire’s nerves were jangling. When Tilly Corteen-Coleman had Voll caught by Bouchier for a 39-ball 52, the game was right back in the balance.
Lauren Bell then picked up two wickets in three balls to leave 16 needed from 10. The scoreboard, which had looked so comfortable, had become suddenly treacherous. Molineux’s smarts saw her concede just three from the next five balls, and it was left to Corteen-Coleman to seal the deal in the final set, keeping her nerve as the Fire needed nine from the last five deliveries and could not find the boundary that would have changed the game.
Southern Brave had defended 126 — a total their dressing room would not have backed at the halfway point — to claim a famous eight-run win in their home opener.
Molineux: The World Champion Delivering When It Matters
For the neutrals, the evening’s defining image was of Molineux — Australia’s T20 World Cup-winning captain who joined the Brave for the 2026 season — running through the Fire’s middle order with control and variation that her opponents had no answer to. A player of this calibre changing the complexion of a match with both bat and ball is precisely what The Hundred was designed to showcase.
“It was a great win in front of our home crowd,” Molineux said. “We clawed our way back and it was really pleasing… It’d be nice if we could take some catches, but we should not read too much into that and just crack on.”
The Brave’s first double-header at Southampton ended split — the men lost in the final two balls, the women clung on by eight runs. Both results, in their own way, encapsulated everything that makes The Hundred so watchable.
Result: Southern Brave Women won by 8 runs
Player of the Match: Sophie Molineux (SB-W) — 22 (16) & 3/14
Scorecard Summary:
Southern Brave Women 126/7 (100 balls) — Wolvaardt 45*, Lee 31, Molineux 22; Graham 4/19
Welsh Fire Women 118/8 (100 balls) — Voll 52 (39), Kemp 39; Molineux 3/14, Bell 2/20, Corteen-Coleman 2/22
