Birmingham Phoenix Team Guide
The Birmingham Phoenix are a franchised men and womens team that play in The Hundred competition in England.
Birmingham Phoenix Background
The Birmingham Phoenix cricket team was founded in 2019 when the new eight team Hundred competition was announced by the ECB. It is a collaboration of county teams Warwickshire and Worcestershire. They featured in the first draft for the competition in October 2019. Former Australia national cricket team star Andrew McDonald was the first men’s coach, Ben Sawyer was to be the women’s coach. The first men’s captain was to be England all rounder Moeen Ali with New Zealand national cricket team player Sophie Devine taking the woman’s role.
Where Do Birmingham Phoenix Play?
Warwickshire headquarters Edgbaston is also the home of Birmingham Phoenix. The 25,000 capacity ground is widely regarded as having the best atmosphere in England.
Birmingham Phoenix Players
Locals Amy Jones and Chris Woakes were the star players announced in the original Hundred draft for the womens and mens teams respectively. Other England cricket team stars to wear the Birmingham colours include Moeen Ali, Liam Livingstone, Ben Duckett, Issy Wong, and Amy Jones. Notable overseas stars to feature for the team are Pakistan national cricket team player Shadab Khan, Adam Milne, Kane Richardson and arguably the biggest player in women’s cricket Australia’s Ellyse Perry.
Memorable Games For The Birmingham Phoenix
The wait for the first individual century was ended by Birmingham Phoenix opener Will Smeed. His innings early in the second edition of the competition in 2022 against Southern Brave helped his team to a 53 run victory. Smeed, who raised eyebrows in the sport when he retired from first class cricket aged just 21 to focus on White ball formats, faced 50 balls in his unbeaten 101 crashing 8 fours and 6 sixes to delight the Edgbaston crowd. His ton dominated the score of Birmingham Phoenix’s 176 for 4. In reply local lad Henry Brookes marked his debut in the competition with 5 for 25 as Brave were bowled out for 123 with 15 balls of their allocated 100 unused.
The women’s Birmingham Phoenix team enjoyed a thumping win against Welsh Fire back in 2021 at Edgbaston. The Birmingham Phoenix bowlers kept things tight then took a flurry of wickets in the second part of Fires innings to restrict them to 127 for 9 batting first. Bryony Smith’s 38 was the best a Fire batter could manage with those runs coming at just over a run a ball. Erin Burns and Emily Arlott proved particularly difficult to get away both going at less than a run a ball. In reply India national cricket team opener Shafali Verma and Eve Jones made light work of the Fire’s total romping to victory by ten wickets with all of 24 balls remaining. Verma was in particularly dominant form striking a fine 76 not out in just 42 deliveries, Jones also posted a half century finishing 52 not out from 35 balls as the Birmingham Phoenix recorded about as convincing a victory as you are likely to see.
