CK Updates
The Hundred 2025 results: Joe Root guides Welsh Fire to victory over Birmingham Phoenix
The Hundred men’s competition, Edgbaston
Birmingham Phoenix 137-9 (100 balls): Clarke 35 (23); Ferguson 2-20, Jansen 2-21
Welsh Fire 138-3 (96 balls): Root 58* (40); Wood 1-21
Welsh Fire won by seven wickets
Joe Root scored an unbeaten half-century to guide Welsh Fire to a controlled seven-wicket win over bottom side Birmingham Phoenix.
In his first match since being reappointed as England’s Test captain on Thursday, Root struck each of his first three deliveries for four and top-scored with 58 (40) as Fire chased 138 with four balls to spare.
Root enjoyed a 77-run first-wicket partnership with Phil Salt, who struck four sixes in his 46 (36). Salt survived being caught off the third ball of the innings – bowler Saqib Mahmood was penalised for a front-foot no ball – but had no luck when reviewing his lbw dismissal.
Rachin Ravindra was also out lbw before Jordan Cox was bowled by Mahmood for 20 (14) with Welsh Fire six runs shy of victory. Root fittingly hit the winning runs, reverse-scooping for four before jogging the winning single.
A third win of the summer moves Welsh Fire from fifth to second in the table, trailing Trent Rockets on net run-rate. Birmingham Phoenix have now lost three consecutive matches since winning their opener and remain eighth.
Electing to bat first, Phoenix raced beyond 50 inside the powerplay, Joe Clarke dispatching Sam Cook’s final five balls for 20 runs, but saw their innings implode from 53-1 to 79-5, including a dismal spell of three wickets for nine runs.
Cox completed two relay catches on the boundary to account for Mitch Owen and Clarke, who top-scored with 35 (23), while poor decision-making saw Laurie Evans and Rehan Ahmed run out in quick succession.
Donovan Ferreira injected some brief impetus, hitting Ravindra for back-to-back sixes before holing out for 23 (21), with Sean Dickson, Chris Wood and Scott Currie also departing as Phoenix limped to 137-9.
Lockie Ferguson and Marco Jansen finished with two wickets apiece.
It was a fifth successive mid-table finish for the Welsh club, who have not mounted a serious promotion push since Steve Cooper’s team were beaten in the 2021 play-off final by Brentford.
Having been among the Championship’s biggest spenders in the 2025 close season, Swansea’s hierarchy have once again shown ambition this summer.
The club are believe to have spent in the region of £15m on Elijah Just, Joseph Opoku and Moussa Yeo, while Stephen Welsh has signed on a free transfer.
They are also working on deals for a left-back and central midfielder and may look to add another centre-back before the window closes.
“The focus is improving the team, improving the players, put the team in a level that we can compete against everyone,” Matos added.
“There are strong teams [in the Championship] with a lot in terms of budget and a lot of expectations.
“So it doesn’t mean that we need to be the best team, but it means that we need to be able to compete against everyone and be able to win against everyone.
“That’s the good thing about sports. You don’t need to be the best one, but you need to be able to beat the best one. That’s what we want to be.”
After Victoria withdrew in 2023, Glasgow answered the SOS call – and organisers say the past 11 days in the Scottish city have “exceeded all expectations”.
Yes, there have been grumbles – including from those who have seen parking spaces outside their houses taken – and taxi drivers and shop owners the Games have passed by.
On the ground, though, this felt like a meaningful event.
Ticket sales of 434,000 were well down from 1.5 million for Birmingham 2022, but they were always going to be given the smaller venues for this scaled-back edition. It has been rare to enter a venue and not find a joyful, engaged crowd.
There was plenty of excitement for fans, too – Josh Kerr’s golden homecoming at Scotstoun, Angharad Evans making the swimming pool floors shake, and Neil Fachie’s emotional victory on his return to the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome.
They also celebrated Jamaica’s seismic netball win over Australia. Live sport rarely fails to deliver.
But a nagging question has remained throughout: is anyone else watching?
Big names such as Kerr and Adam Ramsay-Peaty – with his emotional reaction to taking bronze in the pool – broke out of this Glaswegian bubble, but what else?
Organisers said their social media views passed those of Birmingham within the opening few days and highlighted record-breaking television figures in Australia and New Zealand, where the Games were free-to-air.
Still, without that same coverage in the UK, these Games have – at times – drifted by.
Glasgow 2026 was also hurt by the absence or late withdrawal of big-name competitors, particularly in athletics, which missed Keely Hodgkinson, Katarina Johnson-Thompson and Dina Asher-Smith.
The Games’ differing relevance between sports was again clear – for netball, this remains the pinnacle and is treated as such; for others, it is a stepping stone. Many narratives focused on the “next generation”.
Eighteen-year-old Jersey swimmer Filip Nowacki was perhaps the most exciting name to emerge, but gymnasts Ruby Evans (Wales) and Reuben Ward (Scotland) and England track cyclist Henry Hobbs, who won two golds and a bronze, were others.
Swimmer Faye Rogers impressively brought her success at the Paralympics back to Glasgow with gold in the pool – and then competed in the non-para event as well.
Cyclist Emma Finucane turned her three Olympic medals in Paris into four Commonwealth golds in Glasgow.
All will have their eyes on Los Angeles in 2028.
Olympic cycling champion Finucane has been the standout star with a record four gold medals in one Commonwealth Games.
“At the end of every year, my mates and I get together for a pint and go through the year’s sporting moments because we’re sports geeks,” said Jones.
“You always end up having that conversation about the best ever.
“Emma is absolutely going to be in that conversation as one of Wales’ greatest ever athletes, alongside Anna [Morris] and a few others.
“She’s dominated the headlines here in Glasgow, and I’m absolutely delighted for her.
“She’s such a nice person and such a team player, and that adds so much to the success she’s having.
“With all the gold medals that have come her way, she’s still so down to earth, still puts the team first and always appreciates the people around her.
“She’s not only a world-class athlete, she’s also a brilliant ambassador for Wales.”
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