Litchfield's 25-Ball Fifty Fires Sunrisers Leeds Past Welsh Fire and Into Qualification Showdown
Phoebe Litchfield smashed 55 off 25 balls as Sunrisers Leeds chased down Welsh Fire with 26 balls to spare, winning by six wickets at Headingley on Sunday 9 August 2026. The result keeps Leeds in the hunt for The Hundred knockout phase and knocks Welsh Fire out of the top-three race (BBC Sport).
The Hundred, for anyone unfamiliar, is cricket's 100-ball-per-side format — each team faces 100 deliveries, and the team with more runs wins. Simple arithmetic, compressed drama.
Welsh Fire had posted 121-8 from their 100 balls, built almost entirely around Freya Kemp's unbeaten 72 off 45. Kemp hit six fours and three sixes and was the reason the total reached respectability. She was also dropped three times — twice by Annabel Sutherland and once by Cassidy McCarthy — which let her keep going when a sharper fielding side might have closed the door (BBC Sport).
Deepti Sharma did the bulk of the containing work with the ball, returning 3-13. Hannah Baker chipped in with 2-15. Georgia Voll's 16 off 18 was the next-best score after Kemp, which tells you how thin the Welsh Fire innings was beyond its anchor.
Litchfield needed no such patience. Her 55 came at a strike rate of 220 — six fours and three sixes — and effectively settled the chase before Welsh Fire could build any pressure. Player of the match was a formality. Annabel Sutherland added 28 off 18, and Dani Gibson and Jess Jonassen saw Leeds across the line at 122-4 from 74 balls (BBC Sport).
The table is where this gets interesting. Leeds sit fourth on 16 points, two behind third-placed Manchester Super Giants. The two sides meet at Old Trafford on Tuesday, and the winner progresses to The Hundred Eliminator — the knockout match that offers a route to the final. Welsh Fire, for their part, can no longer finish in the top three. Their tournament is effectively over regardless of remaining fixtures (BBC Sport).
What makes Litchfield's innings stand out is the clarity of it. In a 100-ball chase there is no time to settle and then accelerate — you have to go from the first over. She did, and the required rate never climbed high enough to panic the batters behind her.
For Welsh Fire, the regret will be in the margins. Three dropped catches off a player who scored more than half their runs. On another day, any one of those sticks, the innings stalls at 90-something, and 121 becomes a different proposition. Instead, Kemp carried the total almost single-handedly — and it still was not close to enough.
