Birmingham Phoenix's Intent Machines Feel The Need for Speed

Ross Legg shares his thoughts on a Will Smeed inspired demolition of Southern Brave

The Cricket Podcast’s 2022 Media Centre Tour rolled into Edgbaston on Wednesday evening to witness Birmingham Phoenix demolish the current champions Southern Brave in their second match of The Hundred. I (Ross) continued the trend of turning up, being kindly welcomed by security, and immediately wondering where the hell I was supposed to go.

After a brief game of Snakes and Ladders, I settled into position behind the bowler’s arm and took in a set of worn Commonwealth Games pitches with the Birmingham city skyline in the background. I was ready to continue TCP’s evolution journey of cricket coverage with a one-man extravaganza and tonight I took us into the world of TikTok.

My View from the Edgbaston Press Box

We’ve decided that 60-second updates going out across our social media channels is the best way to generate timely, relevant content when we’re in the media centres. What I hadn’t appreciated however (caught up in all the excitement of my newfound automated video subtitles), is that I’m sitting in the press box. It’s quiet. Hearing every finger on every keyboard quiet. So, there I am, falling over my opening video with an “haha, isn’t Imran Tahir old?!” joke, painfully unaware of my own surroundings. Fortunately, after 250+ podcast episodes and an overinflated sense of self-worth, I quickly switched my focus to the fireworks going off outside and set about watching George Garton whip in.

A little TikTok Taster For You

Unfortunately for George, and the other Southern Brave bowlers they were about to come up against Will Smeed. The 20-year-old who came through the Somerset ranks and shot to stardom as a replacement in The Hundred last year looked every bit the senior pro in their ranks. Moeen Ali came and went with his usual elegant swagger and Liam Livingstone did his best KL Rahul impression, neither could match up to the speed of Smeed who plundered 101 off 50 balls. He becomes The Hundred’s first centurion and takes his rightful place atop the highest score leader board.

I won’t continue to bathe much longer in the mix of serenity and brutalism, but that is what you get with the batting lineup that the Birmingham Phoenix brains trust have put together. Some teams still haven’t figured out how to pace their innings or know what their batting lineup should be in the Hundred but each of the popcorners show intent from the outset and selflessly hunt boundaries. Some may say this approach / philosophy / way of life will get them into trouble more often than not but in such a short tournament, it pays to be aggressive and put the opposition under pressure. They smashed 87 from their first 50 balls against an experience Southern Brave bowling unit who, let’s be fair, tick nearly all the boxes you’d be looking for when drafting one but they were shellshocked and Birmingham added 89 more!

This set up their bowling unit to continuously attack and cause James Vince et al to take more risks from the off. This suited the somewhat stitched-together Phoenix bowling lineup perfectly and debutant Henry Brookes feasted on the frenzy, taking 5-25 with a couple of nice grabs to write home about.

Brave were bowled out for 123 in front of a wonderfully partisan crowd. I’d never bought into the forced rivalries that were pushed out with The Hundred fixtures, but last year’s runners-up had a point to prove here. In each of the three games so far on TCP’s 2022 Media Tour, the home fans have created a boisterous atmosphere that was missing from last year’s season. I think it’s about time I picked a side and got myself a team bucket hat.

The TCP guys will be following The Hundred and you can get our content on YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok. Thanks for reading and as always, let us know what you think!