Tahir and Smeed shine for Birmingham Phoenix as they cruise past Welsh Fire

Imran Tahir and Will Smeed starred at Edgbaston as Birmingham Phoenix ran rampant against Welsh Fire to seal The Hundred’s biggest win so far and return to the top of the table.

The veteran South Africa-leggie will go down in the history books by securing the competition’s first-ever hat-trick and five-for after Smeed struck 65 runs off just 38 balls to help post a score of 184.

Chasing that total was always going to be a stiff task for the visitors, but a ruthless bowling performance from Phoenix was another emphatic message from the home side.

Adam Milne set the tone with his lightning-quick pace as he dismissed Tom Banton for a fourth-ball duck via a lethal in-swinging yorker.

The wickets just continued to fall as Ian Cockbain (32) and skipper Ben Duckett (16) failed to convert their starts into big scores.

Tahir removed the dangerous pairing of Glenn Phillips (8) and Leus du Plooy (1), whilst the pace-off bowling provided by Pat Brown and Benny Howell ensured that Fire could not gain any momentum and threaten the hosts’ total.

Brown’s return to fitness has been a massive boost for Moeen Ali, and the return of his county teammate has coincided with three wins on the bounce. Meanwhile, every good team has tricky bowlers who remain economical throughout the powerplay, and Howell did just that finishing with figures of 2-12-20.

Inevitably, the bowling headlines will go to Tahir who skittled Fire’s tail despite revealing that he had suffered from a cold in recent days.

He initially dismissed Qais Ahmad (1) who sliced into the hands of Will Smeed at mid-off, before pinning Matthew Milnes (0) LBW following an attempted ramp shot to set up the hat-trick and five-for.

David Payne (0) was the unfortunate victim as he was beaten through the gate by a googly to spark off wild celebrations from Tahir, his teammates and the supporters in the stands.

Off the back of impressive batting performances against Trent Rockets and Oval Invincibles, Phoenix have set themselves a standard of batting to sustain. Thanks to Smeed and skipper Ali (59) they maintained that standard.

After losing the dangerous Finn Allen (2) just 11 balls into the innings, Smeed and Ali racked up a partnership of 92.

The skipper smashed his way to a half-century off 23 balls, with three sixes of Graeme White’s first set of five providing England with food for thought ahead of the World Cup, where spin is set to be used heavily.

Being so destructive against spin will only work in the 34-year-old’s favour, especially given it is a weakness in Dawid Malan’s armoury. He also dispatched Luke Fletcher and Ahmad for maximums before falling to Jimmy Neesham.

Phoenix raced to 100 from just 49 balls and continued to assert their dominance in a bid to reach a possible total of 200.

Liam Livingstone’s 31 off 19 would prove to be a handy cameo, as Smeed then brought up his first half-century in the 100-ball format with a six into the leg-side.

A score of 200 may have been possible if the Somerset youngster faced a greater proportion of deliveries after passing 50. Instead, he would only face seven balls out of a possible 25 prior to cracking 10 runs off the final two balls of the innings.

On a night of competition records being broken, the home side set Duckett’s men a tournament-high score to chase, in spite of Smeed’s regular presence at the non-striker’s end.

At the age of 42, Tahir himself knows that he will not be entertaining spectators with his infectious celebrations for too much longer. He relishes every moment spent on the field and has savoured playing in the second city after enjoying a spell at Warwickshire over a decade ago.

“I appreciate the opportunity I’ve been given by Birmingham Phoenix. I need to show that I’m still hungry and that I want to play. If I can do that then I will be very satisfied at the end of the competition.

“Look, every time I play I’m going to do it in the same way, I can promise you. If I don’t then for me there is no point, I would rather give the opportunity to somebody else.”

A defeat leaves Fire with next-to-no chance of reaching the knockout stages of the competition, and Head Coach Gary Kirsten admitted that the ultimate emotion is one of disappointment.

“I think we could have given a better account of ourselves. To be fair too the guys, I think we bowled well for the second half of their innings but we just never go going with the bat.

“We’ve obviously battled from the front after losing early wickets at the top in every game apart from the first two, and that makes a huge difference in trying to build momentum through the innings.”

Kirsten and his side face Southern Brave in their penultimate match of the tournament at the Ageas Bowl on Wednesday, whilst Phoenix face an away clash against Trent Rockets on Friday.

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