BP vs WF, Review | Ben Kellaway’s heroic spell and fielding steal show as Fire emerge victorius at Edgbaston

‌Welsh Fire won the toss and chose to field at Edgbaston, with Riley Meredith giving the team a great start with an early wicket of the dangerous Ben Duckett. The poor form of the English opener continued as he edged the ball onto his stumps on a score of five runs. Despite the early wicket, Will Smeed and Joe Clarke made sure that they finished the powerplay on a decent score of 42/1 after 25 balls. However, as soon as the partnership looked threatening, Clarke was dismissed on the 32nd ball by Ben Kellaway, giving a simple catch back to the bowler. This wicket triggered a mini-collapse as Smeed was dismissed in the next over by Chris Green, and Birmingham Phoenix skipper Liam Livingstone was dismissed by Ajeet Singh Dale on the 49th ball. The Phoenix were suddenly struggling at 76/4 after 50 balls, with the runs drying up in the middle phase. The situation got worse as Kellaway returned for a second over to dismiss Louis Kimber on the 60th ball, which resulted in Phoenix losing half their side with 40 balls to spare. At the end of 75 balls, the runs were still hard to come by with the hosts stranded on a score of 95/5. Though Phoenix were in a spot of bother during their innings, Jacob Bethell’s knock of 38 off 28 deliveries made sure Phoenix reached a respectable total of 138/9 despite running out of partners at the other end.

The Fire bowlers had done an impeccable job with the ball, and now it was up to the batters to take responsibility in the second innings. Steve Eskinazi and Steve Smith straight away put the pressure on the Phoenix bowlers and finished the powerplay on a score of 41/0 after 25 balls. Both batters continued to accumulate runs after the field restrictions were removed, with Eskinazi playing the aggressor and Smith rotating the strike at the other end. However, as soon as the partnership of 72 was broken by Benny Howell after dismissing the dangerous-looking Eskinazi on 42, the runs started to dry up for the visitors. With only 33 runs coming off the next 25 balls, the game was in a balance with the score reading 74/1 after 50 balls. While this period gave a chance for the home team to get back in the game, Jonny Bairstow found his feet and took on the aggressive role from Eskinazi and bringing the game back in the Welsh franchise's favor. With 25 balls to go, Fire were in a comfortable position at 112/1, needing only 27 runs to win. By the time the 50-run stand between the two batters was broken, it was too little too late as Fire, in the end, went on to win the game by eight wickets and 11 balls to spare with Smith remaining unbeaten on 47 off 36 and skipper Tom Abell applying the finishing touches with a boundary in the third man region. This win also made sure they kept their chances alive and avoided elimination.

Ben Kellaway was the player of the match for his incredible spell of 2/10 in 15 balls and his incredible fielding efforts with three catches and a terrific run-out to his name.