It’s the women’s cricket equivalent of Arsene Wenger v Alex Ferguson: Charlotte Edwards (coach of Southern Vipers) against Dani Hazell (coach of Northern Diamonds). Since the new women’s regional structure was introduced in 2020, the pair – former England teammates – have faced off in all three 50-over Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy finals. Before Sunday, the record read 2-1 to Edwards, though it was Hazell who triumphed on the most recent occasion, at Lord’s in September 2022.
The 2023 Women’s Hundred final may have been between two nominally different teams – the Diamonds are branded as Northern Superchargers in the Hundred, while the Vipers play as Southern Brave – but with Edwards and Hazell at the helm, and Lord’s once again the venue, there was nonetheless a certain spice of old-timer rivalry in the air.
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Arguably this final was the biggest of the lot: certainly in crowd terms, played out in front of 21,363 spectators (higher than any crowd for the Women’s Ashes this summer). For Edwards, Sunday ended in not just bragging rights but the one domestic title which had previously eluded her after Brave – at the third time of asking – finally triumphed in a Women’s Hundred final, by a massive 34 runs.
The stakes were also high for a different reason: the keen desire to provide a fitting swansong to the career of Brave captain (and Vipers player-coach) Anya Shrubsole. She might have been denied the chance to bowl a final set after Superchargers collapsed to 105 all out with six balls still remaining of their innings, but there was at least one final wicket to add to the collection (Alice Davidson-Richards trapped LBW), before she left the pitch to a guard of honour from her teammates.
“I’m unbelievably proud,” an emotional Shrubsole said. “It means a huge amount. It’s right up there [with my best moments]. I’ve got an amazing relationship with Lottie [Edwards], and to be able to lift the trophy with her as coach is really special.”
In theory, the draft-induced hotchpotch nature of the Hundred should have resulted in a two teams which bore little resemblance to Vipers or to Diamonds. But Edwards has somehow defied that logic: eight of this Brave XI wore Vipers shirts this season.
“It helps to have a core group of players that play together a lot,” Lauren Bell said afterwards. “A common denominator is Lottie. She’s a winner – she does anything to win.”
Certainly, everywhere you looked, it was Vipers players doing the job out in the middle. With the bat: Danni Wyatt – who hit a 35-ball half-century; Georgia Adams – who joined her for a crucial 87-run partnership; and a limping Freya Kemp, who decided to do the bulk of her work in boundaries, smashing 19 runs from the penultimate 10 balls of the innings.
With the ball: Bell, who took two wickets in her first two sets; Rhianna Southby, who enacted three beautiful stumpings; and Maia Bouchier, whose spectacular running, diving catch at long-on saw off Georgia Wareham. All of them Edwards loyalists through and through.
Brave were clear favourites ahead of this encounter: Superchargers had qualified for the occasion only by virtue of their second-place finish in the group stages, after Saturday’s Eliminator at the Oval was washed out. After nine balls, Brave were eight for two, and those odds had taken a battering: Smriti Mandhana wafted a catch up to short third, before Bouchier (who has of late received an England call-up after scoring 264 runs in the competition’s group stages) sent up a leading edge to extra cover.
Wyatt, though, came firmly to the rescue, in an innings which powered her to the top of the run-scoring charts in this year’s competition. It ended in cruel fashion when the ball ricocheted off her glove at the non-strikers end, allowing Cross to retrieve it and run her out – but with Kemp teeing off at the back end, Brave still reached 139 from their 100 balls.
In a competition where the final has traditionally been a low-scoring affair, it looked likely to be a winning total; and with Superchargers losing regular wickets, and opener Jemimah Rodrigues somehow endeavouring to face just 13 of the first 70 balls, it proved more than enough.
