Beaumont's breath-taking century leads Blaze to victory over Hampshire

The Blaze, 192-3 defeat Hampshire 189-7, by seven wickets.

A superb century from England’s Tammy Beaumont led The Blaze to a seven-wicket victory with 13.1 overs to spare, as Hampshire’s unbeaten start to the Metro Bank One-Day Cup women’s competition ended on a special day Trent Bridge.

Beaumont finished 112 not out, notching her first ton in Blaze orange after sharing an unbroken 159-run partnership with Georgia Elwiss (58 not out) to complete a third win in a row for her side. The Blaze put in a complete performance to record their first home win of the season, in front of an appreciatve crowd as Trent Bridge also hosted the Nottingham Street Food Festival.

Another of The Blaze's England stars, leg-spinner Sarah Glenn, took 3-36 as Hampshire were restricted to 189 in their 50 overs, with opener Ella McCaughan top-scoring with 57.

Hampshire won the toss and elected to bat first on a used wicket, and started brightly. However, Grace Ballinger struck right at the end of the power-play, as Maia Bouchier (14) chopped on, Hampshire finishing the first ten overs 41-1.

While opener Ella McCaughan continued to bat well, Beaumont’s decision to toss the ball to Sarah Glenn early in the game proved pivotal. The spinner not only stemmed the flow of runs, but took three key wickets, bowling her 10-over allocation in a single spell from the Radcliffe Road end.

Employing a stump to stump line, Glenn dismissed Charli Knott (8) and Rhianna Southby (3), both bowled making room to cut. She also removed Hampshire captain Georgia Adams lbw, which left Hampshire with work to do at 91-4 from 25 overs.

The Blaze then made the key breakthough soon after, as Josie Groves took the big wicket of McCaughan, who after completing a fine half century, gave a simple catch to Charley Phillips at backward point.

Phillips then decided to get in on the fun herself, and had Abi Norgrove caught at deep square leg and Nancy Harman beaten for pace to finish with 2- 50, before Freya Davies (25 not out) and Poppy Tulloch (18 not out) batted out the rest of the innings for Hampshire, who may feel they left a few runs out there finishing on 189 with three wickets still in hand.

Despite restricting Hampshire to a sub-200 total, The Blaze knew they would need to be on guard against a quality opening Hampshire seam attack. Freya Davies and Lauren Bell didn't let the away side down, and restricted the Blaze to 31-2 in the powerplay.

Bell removed Amy Jones, and Davies removed Kathryn Bryce, and when sister Sarah Bryce then pulled Bell to be caught behind square, The Blaze were 33-3, and the game was suddenly alive. With Beaumont batting confidently, she needed a willing partner, and found the perfect one in Georgia Elwiss

Beaumont and Elwiss used all of their experience and class to negotiate Hampshire’s bowling efforts, coming through ten overs of spin before upping the tempo to take the total to 106-3 from 25 overs. 

Beaumont’s half-century came from 73 balls with four boundaries, while Elwiss reached the milestone, her first fifty in Blaze colours, in 63. 

Needing less than 60 runs, Beaumont began to put the foot down, and struck a flurry of boundaries,  advancing into the 90s with a towering six over long-on. Beaumont then pulled Bell for her tenth four in the next over, before taking a single to record her first Blaze century from 110 balls, removing her helmet and lifting her bat aloft to standing ovation. 

Beaumont then finished the job herself, walking off Trent Bridge to well deserved applause with Elwiss alongside her, the two recording an 159 run unbeaten partnership to hand The Blaze a thouroughly deserved win.