Fiery pacer Shabnim Ismail was at her belligerent best on Thursday, August 10 in the ongoing The Women's Hundred as she achieved a sensational hat-trick to derail Birmingham Phoenix's chase and guided her side Welsh Fire to victory.
Ismail had her task cut out in the dying moments of the match as she was tasked to defend eight runs off the last set. With two set batters batting in the middle for Phoenix in the form of Amy Jones (47) and Tess Flintoff (51), the odds were stacked against Ismail.
The former South African speedster started off with a length ball angling in on off to Jones who heaved it towards midwicket for a single. The strike went to Flintoff who had already struck five boundaries and found her sixth of the game as she advanced down the wicket and smeared one through extra cover after making some room to a length ball outside off.
Flintoff's timely boundary brought the equation down to three runs required off three balls and Phoenix looked like taking the game away in style. However, a headstrong Ismail was in no mood to let it slip away so easily. After a brief chat with her skipper Tammy Beaumont, the bowler decided to bring sweeper cover in - a move that immediately paid dividends.
The veteran seamer attacked the stumps on the next delivery and bowled it full, Flintoff with her off side blocked shuffled towards her off stump and tried to open up the on side only to have her timber rattled.
Watch Shabnim Ismail's hat-trick:
In came Erin Burns and the pressure got to her immediately. Ismail went wide of the crease to angle it on a length and Burns tried to smack her through the off side but the latter ended up getting just a thick outside edge which flew to Claire Nicholas at short third and she grabbed it gleefully. With three needed off the last ball, the 34-year-old Protea went for the top of off and hit the bull's eye as the new batter Issy Wong's ploy of targetting the off side failed miserably and the ball cannoned into the off stump.
Ismail's heroics propelled Fire to the top of the points table with seven points in four games and are yet to concede a match in the ongoing season.
