Report: Fire v Phoenix, The Hundred Men

Moeen Ali and Ben Duckett made classy half-centuries as Birmingham Phoenix claimed a five-wicket win at Sophia Gardens to end Welsh Fire’s hopes of reaching The Hundred Eliminator and push themselves up to third in the table.

Chasing 147 for victory, the two England left-handers shared an opening stand of 114 in 73 deliveries, Moeen hitting eight fours and a six in his 46-ball 60, his highest ever score in The Hundred, before top-edging Matt Henry to David Payne.

Moeen’s departure brought Jamie Smith to the crease and England’s Test keeper looked in sublime touch, making 12 from his first three deliveries, until he was clean bowled by a Haris Rauf inducker.

Liam Livingstone, Dan Mousley and Jacob Bethell departed in quick succession as Phoenix looked to finish the game in a hurry and boost their net run-rate but Duckett (54* off 31) held his nerve to steer his team to a crucial victory, Benny Howell hitting the winning runs with seven balls to spare.

Earlier, Sean Abbott (4-16) had starred with the ball for Phoenix, the Australian all-rounder collecting his second four-wicket haul of this season’s Hundred as Fire were restricted to 146-8.

Stephen Eskinazi played nicely for his 21-ball 30 before being clean bowled by Mousley but the rest of Fire’s top-order struggled, with Luke Wells undone by an Adam Milne slower ball and Joe Clarke and Tom Abell falling victim to Abbott.

Tom Kohler-Cadmore (54 from 32) injected some energy to the innings, hitting his first delivery for four and then dispatching Howell over the ropes. He hit five more fours in his rapid half-century – including three in succession off Tim Southee – until falling to Abbott, who then picked up his fourth when he had David Payne caught by Southee.

Matt Henry struck two boundaries off his compatriot Milne in the final set of the innings but it proved to be in vain as Fire’s hopes of reaching the knockout stage were extinguished.

Abbott, the Meerkat Match Hero, said: “It was a little bit tricky to sum up the conditions at first, but it was about going back to basics and trying to hit the top of the stumps with change-ups and then going from there.

“It’s definitely a very relaxed vibe amongst the group and I feel like we portray that when we go out and play the game. We’re always trying to put pressure on the other team, no matter the situation, and we’ve done that pretty well the last couple of games. It feels like there’s a good balance at the moment and everyone’s playing their roles really well.”