Joe Root: England Test captain stars on Hundred duty as Welsh Fire beat Birmingham Phoenix, Southern Brave reach small total set by London Spirit

Welsh Fire are back on the winning trail after a commanding performance against a misfiring Birmingham Phoenix, whose familiar failings with the bat have put them all but out of contention for the latter stages. 

Two days after being confirmed as England men's full-time Test skipper once again, Root's effortlessly composed (58no) anchored the Fire's chase, taking his new franchise home with four balls still in hand.

He shared a telling opening stand with Phil Salt, who raced to 46 from 36 balls with four sixes before being trapped in front by Mitch Owen (1-9).

• Scorecard: Birmingham Phoenix vs Welsh Fire
• Scorecard: London Spirit vs Southern Brave
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Rachin Ravindra (7) then joined Root but he never got going on a crabby pitch, and it was no surprise when Chris Wood (1-21) induced a cross-bat hoick as Ravindra looked in vain to push on.

His dismissal, with the Fire still needing 42 from 31, brought Jordan Cox (20) to the crease. Cox has been short of runs so far this campaign but he showed good touch, seeing off the impressive Pakistani off-spinner Usman Tariq (0-23) and punching his way to 20 to take the game deep.

Cox had a fruitful game. Earlier, the Fire keeper executed two brilliant catches to snare the wickets of Owen for 18 and Joe Clarke - the only Phoenix batter to find any real fluency - for 35. Rehan Ahmed (13) flickered briefly, but he fell to a smart piece of fielding from Salt, the second player to be run out in that middle third as the Phoenix's innings ran aground.

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The Fire's variety in their bowling stocks was again on show: today it was the turn of Marco Jansen and Lockie Ferguson to share two wickets apiece. They used five bowlers; all of them internationals.

While a total of 137 was never likely to be enough with Root in this form, the home side - playing in front of co-owner and local hero Jude Bellingham - scrapped hard to stay in the contest.

When Mahmood burst through Cox's swipe to clean-bowl him, it left the Fire still needing six from seven balls. Cue the master. Root's latest trick, the impish lofted scoop off a good length ball, settled matters to take the Fire joint top.

'We were ruthless'

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Joe Root speaking on Sky Sports Cricket:

"That is how you want to play cricket, being ruthless and getting it done at the end.

"We've got a lot of depth in different areas, a lot of bases covered and good variety in our attack.

"We've also got a good understanding of how we want to chase down totals, and if we can find a way to make Cardiff a very difficult place to come and play in particular, then it will go a long way to ensuring we get through to the back-end of the tournament."

Brave chase meagre 106 set by Spirit

Figures of 4-9 from England ace Jofra Archer saw Southern Brave bowl out London Spirit for 105, the home side losing their last five wickets for just two runs, as the Brave set up a five-wicket win at Lord's to keep their season very much alive.

A battling 56 from Jonny Bairstow was the only innings of note for the Spirit as Marcus Stoinis continued his fine tournament with the ball, finishing with 3-17 to take his wicket tally to nine in four matches and see himself top of the wicket-taking charts.

Inserted by Chris Jordan, the Spirit reached 52-2 at halfway with Bairstow struggling for fluency on a tricky wicket for a run-a-ball 25. Adil Rashid had Liam Livingstone caught at deep cover to go past Tymal Mills and become the leading wicket-taker in The Hundred men's competition's history as he finished with figures of 2-17.

Bairstow reached his half-century from 40 balls but was then part of a spectacular Spirit collapse, with Archer and Stoinis both bagging two-in-two to wrap up the innings with eight balls left unused.

With just 106 required for victory, the Brave were obvious favourites but the chase wasn't an easy one. They lost Ben McKinney (0) and Nikhil Chaudhary (5) to David Willey (2-28) early, the former for a first-ball duck. Despite the loss of wickets, Jamie Smith dominated the early exchanges, motoring to 36 and launching a maximum into the scoreboard, before falling lbw to James Coles (1-13).

Adam Zampa (1-14) was economical through the middle and saw the back of Moeen Ali - who'd come into the Brave squad to replace the injured Thomas Rew - and then Stoinis was run-out at the non-striker's end to leave the score 60-5 with 46 still required from 48.The South African duo of David Miller and Tristan Stubbs came together and steadily chipped away at the remaining runs, Miller clearing the ropes to finish 39 not out as the Brave got home with three balls to spare.

It was a crucial win for the Brave, who are still right in the mix for a spot in the Eliminator, while for the Spirit, a lot will have to go right now for them to progress into the knockout stages.

'We made it hard for ourselves'

Meerkat Match Hero, Jofra Archer, speaking on Sky Sports Cricket:

"I'm delighted that we got the win today. It's the first time I've got more than two wickets for the tournament. Everyone's been bowling well. We've not been getting huge amounts of wickets but we've definitely been keeping the runs down."

On chasing a small total, he added: "You always think that it's going to be an easy game, but we seem to always make it hard for ourselves."

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