The new season of The Hundred Women's Competition opens with the fixture that defines the league on either end of the table. Southern Brave Women, who reached four of the first five finals and lifted the trophy in 2023, host a Welsh Fire Women side that managed a single win across last summer and finished bottom of the standings. Match 2 of the 2026 edition starts at 7:30 PM IST on Wednesday, 22 July, at the Rose Bowl in Southampton, with Sony Sports Networks, Sony LIV and FanCode carrying the live broadcast in India.
The gap between the two sides on paper is wide. Southern Brave reached last year's final and lost it to Sunrisers Leeds by seven wickets, which means they have spent more time on the field in the tournament's biggest games than any other side in the competition. Welsh Fire used the close-season auction to reset almost everything around captain Sophie Devine, and the early test of that build is exactly the kind of fixture that exposes whether the new-look bowling unit can hold its nerve against a top-order that scores quickly when it gets going.
This preview draws from the officially listed predicted XIs, the broadcast schedule for the tournament and the on-site pitch read for the Rose Bowl. The numbers cited for head-to-head record and squad composition come from the competition's published records. Injury status of any specific player has not been confirmed in the build-up and should be checked closer to the toss before any fantasy selection is locked.
Where Southern Brave stand going in
Southern Brave remain the most consistent team in the competition's short history. Across five seasons they have made the final four times — and won one of those, the 2023 edition. The 2025 final ended in a seven-wicket defeat to Sunrisers Leeds, which is a sharper scoreline than the run of results across the season suggested.
The Brave retain a top-order built around Laura Wolvaardt, Lizelle Lee and Jemimah Rodrigues, three batters who play the high-tempo game The Hundred rewards. Maia Bouchier and Phoebe Franklin add batting depth through the middle order, and Sophie Molineux takes the captaincy armband as a fifth-bowling option in the Hundred's 100-ball format — the all-round balance that has often been the difference in the Brave's four final appearances.
The seam-bowling group — Tilly Corteen-Coleman, Lauren Bell and Issy Wong — has pace and variation, while Sarah Glenn is the specialist wrist-spin option who can be introduced either side of the powerplay. The combination is built to exploit a pitch that offers help to the quicks if there is any early movement.
Fast-bowling depth decides Match 2
Bell, Wong and Glenn all in the same XI is the kind of variety the Brave's rivals struggle to match at the Rose Bowl.
Why Welsh Fire's reset is the headline question
Welsh Fire finished last in the 2025 edition with a single win from their group games. That record is the headline the squad has been trying to put behind it through a long winter. The close-season auction rebuilt the side around Sophie Devine's captaincy and her dual role as a top-order power hitter and a middle-overs bowling option.
The other shape changes are around the bowling unit. Freya Kemp comes in as an all-round seam option who can bowl with the new ball and the old, and that dual-phase skill is exactly what Welsh Fire lacked last year. Georgia Wareham brings leg-spin control through the middle phase, Sophia Smale adds a left-arm spinner's angle, and Em Arlott offers another seam-bowling look alongside Fi Morris.
The batting looks thinner on paper than the Brave's top six but starts with promise at the top: Georgia Voll opens, Ella McCaughan is listed in the top order and Sarah Bryce keeps wicket. If the Brave seam attack gets early wickets, this is a batting card that could find itself rebuilding in the powerplay.
The Rose Bowl pitch and what it asks of the XIs
The Rose Bowl is one of the genuinely pace-friendly surfaces in the women's Hundred calendar. The on-site read is that the wicket has good bounce and carry for the fast bowlers in the first half of the innings. Batters can use the pace on the up and through the line, but back-foot work will be the harder skill on this surface, and the square boundaries are large enough that placement matters more than raw power.
The wind direction in Southampton in late July can swing the value of the aerial route substantially. On a Wednesday evening with any crosswind, top-edge pulls and lofted drives down to long-on become genuine wicket-taking chances for the bowlers and genuine boundary-saving chances for the fielding side. Both captains will think about field placement in the first 25 balls rather than the assumed score.
That pitch read pushes selection toward all-rounders who can bowl a tidy over in either phase and batters who hit along the ground. The two XIs below lean on that logic.
Predicted Southern Brave Women XI
The Brave's likely starting XI keeps the top-order trio together and uses Molineux as the seam-bowling all-rounder who can float up the order if the powerplay needs a rebuild. Bell and Wong share the new ball with the speed that the Rose Bowl will reward.
- Laura Wolvaardt
- Lizelle Lee (wk)
- Jemimah Rodrigues
- Maia Bouchier
- Phoebe Franklin
- Sophie Molineux (c)
- Rebecca Odgers
- Tilly Corteen-Coleman
- Lauren Bell
- Issy Wong
- Sarah Glenn
Glenn as the lone specialist wrist-spinner against a top-order that has at least three right-handers is the selection that shapes the match-up arithmetic. If the Brave bowl first, expect an early spin over to break any pace-bowler rhythm.
Why the infield matters at the Rose Bowl
Large square boundaries turn four runs into a tactical choice — captains will stack the ring and dare batters to clear them.
Predicted Welsh Fire Women XI
Welsh Fire list the side around Devine's captaincy. Voll opens alongside McCaughan, then comes the middle order of Bryce behind the stumps, Kemp and Wareham as the two main all-round seam options, and the spin trio of Morris, Smale and Arlott rounding out the attack.
- Georgia Voll
- Sophie Devine (c)
- Ella McCaughan
- Sarah Bryce
- Rhianna Southby (wk)
- Freya Kemp
- Georgia Wareham
- Fi Morris
- Sophia Smale
- Heather Graham
- Em Arlott
The seam-bowling depth — five options across pace, seam-up and leg-spin — is the structural answer to last summer's one-win record. The open question is whether the batting holds up if Devine is forced into the role of carrying the innings for too long.
Players to watch — batters
Laura Wolvaardt (SOB-W) is in strong international form going into this tournament. Her run-scoring through the cover region suits a Rose Bowl pitch where the new ball moves but the outfield rewards placement. She is the Brave's most likely top-order scorer in the powerplay.
Georgia Voll (WEF-W) has been a consistent scorer at international level and comes in off a winter that built her confidence against pace. The early contest of the night will be how she handles Lauren Bell's full-length swing in the first set of five balls.
Players to watch — bowlers
Freya Kemp (WEF-W) is the seam-bowling all-rounder Welsh Fire have been waiting for. She can take the new ball and the death ball and she fields at backward point. If she dismisses one of the Brave's top three cheaply, it changes the chase.
Sarah Glenn (SOB-W) is the specialist wrist-spinner in the Brave's XI. Against a right-hand-heavy Welsh Fire top six, expect her to be introduced inside the first 25 balls rather than held back as a middle-overs change.
Head-to-head in The Hundred
The two sides have met nine times in the competition's history. Southern Brave Women lead the series 6-3, with no matches washed out. Most of those fixtures have been tight: the Brave's edge is built on four appearances in finals and one trophy, but the gap between the two on a single match-day is usually decided by which side gets the powerplay wickets.
Our prediction
The case for Welsh Fire rests on bowling depth. Freya Kemp, Georgia Wareham and Sophia Smale give them a multi-phase seam-and-spin attack that the Brave's middle order has not regularly had to navigate this winter. Devine, Kemp and Arlott can each take a powerplay or a death over, and that flexibility matters on a Rose Bowl pitch where the captain who gets early breakthroughs typically finishes the job. By contrast, Southern Brave remain heavily reliant on Wolvaardt, Rodrigues and Lee to lay a foundation, and Molineux to keep the innings moving in the middle phase — a structure that has carried them to four finals but not always to the trophy.
On the balance of unit construction, we read this as a tight Welsh Fire slight-edge match-up. The Brave's path back to a winning XI runs through a top-three powerplay of 50-plus without losing more than one wicket, and through Glenn finding spin variation against the Fire's right-hand-heavy middle order. Both outcomes sit within plausible range — but if Kemp opens with a wicket in the first set of five, the chase flips quickly.
How to watch and what's next
The live broadcast is on Sony Sports Networks in India, with streaming on Sony LIV and FanCode. First ball is at 7:30 PM IST on Wednesday, 22 July.
The next thing to watch before any fantasy pick is locked is the toss. On a Rose Bowl pitch that offers early movement to the seamers, the captain who bowls first takes the margin out of the powerplay scoring rate and forces the chasing side to play the same conditions the bowlers already enjoyed. Whatever the call is, the predicted XIs above should hold up unless last-minute injury news drops before 6:30 PM IST. For the rolling team news, venue reads and captain pick refresh through the window, our daily archive at the fantasy cricket blog keeps the conversation moving across the tournament.