Trent Rockets made it two wins from three in The Hundred women's competition, chasing down Welsh Fire's 129-3 with 17 balls to spare at Sophia Gardens in Cardiff on 29 July 2026. The Rockets cantered home on 132-2, winless Fire left to rue a sluggish start with the bat.

The Hundred, for the uninitiated, is cricket's 100-balls-per-side format — each team faces 100 deliveries in sets of five, with the bowling end switching after every ten. Compact, fast, and designed for television, it rewards aggression from ball one.

Welsh Fire chose to bat first but stumbled early. Openers Georgia Voll and Ella McCaughan both fell inside the first 41 deliveries, leaving the home side at 28-2. By the halfway mark of their innings — 50 balls bowled — Fire had crawled to 41-2, well below the scoring rate the format demands BBC Sport.

The rescue came through Sophie Devine and Freya Kemp. Devine, the experienced New Zealand all-rounder, cracked 38 from 25 balls with two fours and two sixes before departing. Kemp, retained by Fire for £120,000 this season, stayed unbeaten on 36 from 29. Georgia Wareham chipped in with a brisk 19 off 10. Fire's 129-3 was competitive on paper, but only just.

Trent Rockets had other ideas. Beth Mooney, the 32-year-old Australian wicketkeeper-batter, opened alongside Sophia Dunkley and immediately took the attack to Fire. The pair put on 73 for the first wicket, with Mooney racing to her half-century from just 27 balls. She finished on 57 from 35 — an innings of clean, calculated hitting that turned a tricky chase into a walkover BBC Sport.

Dunkley fell when she was caught in the deep by Heather Graham, but the damage was done. In came Nat Sciver-Brunt, the England captain playing her first game of the campaign after missing the first two through absence. She eased to an unbeaten 37, seeing the Rockets home alongside the promoted batter without any further alarms.

Mooney, retained by the Rockets for £210,000 as an overseas player this season, previously turned out for Welsh Fire in an earlier edition of The Hundred. Her return to Cardiff offered a reminder of what the hosts were missing. For Fire, Arlott's 1-15 was the solitary bowling highlight; Phillips returned the best figures for the Rockets with 2-17.

The match was the 11th of the 2026 women's competition ESPNcricinfo.

For Fire, the problems are stacking up. A slow powerplay — the fielding-restricted opening phase where batters typically look to score freely — has cost them across matches, and 129 was never likely to be enough once Mooney found her range. The Rockets, by contrast, will feel their tournament is gathering momentum, particularly with Sciver-Brunt now back in the side and scoring freely.