Root guides Fire to victory over Phoenix

Joe Root, wearing red trousers, shirt and helmet, leans forward to play a shot with his bat held up in front of him

Image source, Getty ImagesImage caption,

Root scored the fourth half-century of his men's Hundred career and his first for Welsh Fire

ByElizabeth BotcherbyBBC Sport journalist

Published28 minutes ago

The Hundred men's competition, Edgbaston

Birmingham Phoenix 137-9 (100 balls): Clarke 35 (23); Ferguson 2-20, Jansen 2-21

Welsh Fire 138-3 (96 balls): Root 58* (40); Wood 1-21

Welsh Fire won by seven wickets

Scorecard. Table

Joe Root scored an unbeaten half-century to guide Welsh Fire to a controlled seven-wicket win over bottom side Birmingham Phoenix.

In his first match since being reappointed as England's Test captain on Thursday, Root struck each of his first three deliveries for four and top-scored with 58 (40) as Fire chased 138 with four balls to spare.

Root enjoyed a 77-run first-wicket partnership with Phil Salt, who struck four sixes in his 46 (36). Salt survived being caught off the third ball of the innings - bowler Saqib Mahmood was penalised for a front-foot no ball - but had no luck when reviewing his lbw dismissal.

Rachin Ravindra was also out lbw before Jordan Cox was bowled by Mahmood for 20 (14) with Welsh Fire six runs shy of victory. Root fittingly hit the winning runs, reverse-scooping for four before jogging the winning single.

A third win of the summer moves Welsh Fire from fifth to second in the table, trailing Trent Rockets on net run-rate. Birmingham Phoenix have now lost three consecutive matches since winning their opener and remain eighth.

Electing to bat first, Phoenix raced beyond 50 inside the powerplay, Joe Clarke dispatching Sam Cook's final five balls for 20 runs, but saw their innings implode from 53-1 to 79-5, including a dismal spell of three wickets for nine runs.

Cox completed two relay catches on the boundary to account for Mitch Owen and Clarke, who top-scored with 35 (23), while poor decision-making saw Laurie Evans and Rehan Ahmed run out in quick succession.

Donovan Ferreira injected some brief impetus, hitting Ravindra for back-to-back sixes before holing out for 23 (21), with Sean Dickson, Chris Wood and Scott Currie also departing as Phoenix limped to 137-9.

Lockie Ferguson and Marco Jansen finished with two wickets apiece.

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What is happening on Sunday?

There are another four games taking place.

Trent Rockets host Sunrisers Leeds in the women's competition at Trent Bridge at 11:00 BST, followed by the men's game at 14:30.

Later, MI London face Manchester Originals at The Oval, with the women's match at 14:30 and the men's match at 18:00. Both of those games will be live on BBC Two and BBC iPlayer.

For all four matches you can follow ball-by-ball commentary on BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra, BBC Sounds and the BBC Sport website and app.