The Cricketer looks at the main talking points from The women's Hundred clash between Oval Invincibles and Birmingham Phoenix at the Kia Oval
During a summer in which Sophia Smale has laid down her credentials as a genuine all-rounder, this was an example of another string to her bow.
Birmingham Phoenix were three down inside the first 31 deliveries chasing 150 when Smale appeared to get a delivery to stick in the surface and force Sophie Devine into a miss-timed stroke.
The ball looped up and back over the 19-year-old who with one foot off the ground leapt and off-balance held onto a one-handed catch.
And rarely will you see a celebration like it. A guttural scream was followed by being engulfed by her teammates, before she not once, but twice took a moment to consider what had unfolded. It was heartening to watch a player, even as talented as Smale, astonished by her own skill.
If her progress over recent summers is anything to go by, it won't be the last time we see such a reaction.
SOPHIA SMALE! 🫢
— The Hundred (@thehundred) July 23, 2024
That is SOME catch! 🤩#TheHundred pic.twitter.com/yX2jNM1Cbi
Sophia Smale reacts to dismissing Suzie Bates (Getty Images/ECB Media)
With Chamari Athapaththu due to be a late arrival because of the Asia Cup, Oval Invincibles have been forced into a rethink at the top of the order.
Enter Paige Scholfield, the in-form South Africa native who jumped up from the middle-order and played a sublime knock to lead her side to victory.
The 28-year-old struck 259 runs in the Charlotte Edwards Cup but, crucially, at a strike rate of 140 as South East Stars reached the final at Derby.
She brought the form that saw her average a boundary every 4.5 deliveries in that run during a spellbinding knock of 71, by far the outstanding individual display of day one of The Hundred.
From pulling Charis Pavely past fine leg, hitting Sophie Devine for four successive boundaries, lifting Ellyse Perry over extra cover of hitting Hannah Baker down the ground, Scholfield had all the shots to which Phoenix had no answer.
"I was pretty nervous but once I got a feel for the pitch I just went for it," she said. "Playing in a competition like this with the quality there is it's nice to get a score. I trusted my shots."
There was a degree of controversy from the second delivery of the Phoenix reply when Marizanne Kapp fielded the ball from Suzie Bates' attempted shot down the ground and threw the ball back at the New Zealand batter.
It was an act delivered purely in jest, both sharing a laugh as Kapp returned to her mark. But umpires Anna Harris and Sue Redfern failed to see the funny side and following a lengthy chat with Invincibles captain Lauren Winfield-Hill issued a five-run penalty, much to the consternation of the South African.
And you could sense her frustration when she bowled Bates via the 22nd delivery of the chase, taking out her leg stump, with a devastating ball before continuing her complaints to her teammates.
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