Stirling, Whiteley shine as Southern Brave clinch inaugural men's Hundred title

London [UK], August 22 : Paul Stirling smashed 61 off 36 balls while Ross Whiteley whacked 44 off 19 before an all-round bowling performance helped Southern Brave defeat Birmingham Phoenix to lift the inaugural The Hundred title.
Southern Brave defeated Birmingham Phoenix by 32 runs on Saturday. The Brave scored 168 runs in the new 100-ball format game and then restricted the Phoenix to 136/5 to clinch the men's title.
Put in to bat first, Southern Brave got off to a bad start as they lost opening batsman Quinton de Kock early in the innings.
Skipper James Vince too departed after scoring just four runs before Stirling whirlwind knock raced the Brave to 85 runs. However, he was dismissed on the 61st ball of the match.
Whiteley then carried forward the momentum and smashed 44 runs off just 19 balls to help Southern Brave set up a target of 169 in the final.
Chasing, Birmingham Phoenix got off to a worst possible start and never really recovered from the early blows.
The side lost two wickets for 14 runs, Liam Livingstone did provide the Phoenix some momentum with his blistering 46 off 19 balls however, no other batsmen except him were able to score some quick runs.
In the end, Birmingham Phoenix fell 33 runs short of the target.
Brief Scores: Southern Brave 168/5 (Stirling 61, Ross Whiteley 44; Milne 2-8); Birmingham Phoenix (Moeen Ali 36, Liam Livingstone 46; Tymal Mills 1-13)