Opinion: What Went Wrong For the Welsh Fire In The Hundred 2022?

After a second campaign of The Hundred in England returned mixed reviews once again, another factor which didn’t change from it’s opening season was the Welsh Fire’s lack of success.

One of the world’s most tipped coaches with over 10 years of coaching experience including the last five years based solely with T20 franchises to go with his very successful playing career consisting of 286 international matches, Gary Kirsten kept his place in charge of the men’s side following a 7th position finish in 2021. Meanwhile, the lesser experience Gareth Breese took over from the now England white-ball coach Matthew Mott in charge of the women’s set up.

For the men’s side it seems as though the failed attempt at success began at the draft. Welsh Fire opted to attempt an outside the box approach by basing their team around Tom Banton and Joe Clarke, two youthful homegrown batters with past white ball domestic success. All of the other seven franchises chose at least one overseas player in their top salary cap section of the draft and hence meaning they would be the team’s foundations going forward. This bold move didn’t pay off as Clarke and Banton couldn’t break 200 runs between the opening pair as they averaged 12.75 and 13.83 respectively.

The bold draft move had a domino effect on the remainder of the team as less household named overseas players were selected. Sodhi played in only a limited number of games but looked useful when appearing for the Cardiff based side. However, with a top order not setting the example coach Kirsten would’ve hoped, David Miller was often looked to as the overseas with experience in the middle order to stabilise, he could only manage 73 runs in the competition at an average of 12.17.

With batting collapses a recurring site, the Fire could only reach 129 as a best first innings score across their eight matches, bringing less threat to the opposition when the exciting young fast bowler of George Scrimshaw was brought on for a spell after bursting onto the scene and catching attention during the T20 blast representing Derbyshire. He suffered a blow as he went at an economy of 8.75 per set of five deliveries in the competition.

Potentially the biggest dent in the Welsh Fire camp was losing Jonny Bairstow before a game had been played. Due to workload the England International withdrew from the competition leaving Duckett a singular shining light in the side’s batting efforts for the second consecutive year. Bairstow in just two innings in last year’s event scored 128 runs with scores of 72 and 56.

In the women’s competition, the Fire brought home the only win for the franchise in the 2022 season despite finishing rock bottom for the second consecutive year.

Despite the season’s outcome, Welsh Fire looked promising and only fell short by small margins in their opening three games, the new addition of Alex Hartley looked to be a potential match winner who was the pick of the Welsh Fire players across the season. Despite only picking up four wickets, conceding only 5.3 runs per set of five deliveries, creating key pressure at one end.

The season appeared to look like déjà vu however when they lost against the bottom of the league side London Spirit by eight wickets in their fourth match of the season.

A key casing point for Welsh Fire’s downfall in this year’s hundred comes again in the batting department. Despite captain Tammy Beaumont top scoring for the women in the competition scoring 138 runs at an average of 27.6 her inability to score big in this season’s event meant there was never a strong foundation for the middle order to remain strong scoring at a-run-a-ball to make competitive scores. With a lack of big hitting when Beaumont and West Indian Hayley Matthews was dismissed the lack of firepower in the middle order showed as the Fire could only reach a first innings best of 123.

The aforementioned overseas Hayley Matthews had a successful three matches as she scored 109 runs including the only half-century in the franchise’s campaign. Despite her expensive slow bowling nature her experience with the ball would’ve also been invaluable in the remaining three games.

Along with Beaumont, other former England internationals Fran Wilson and Katie George were looked to for important roles in the success of the Welsh Fire but with averages of under 10 a piece, the lack of batting depth once again was proven. George, also only took one wicket, conceding just shy of two runs per ball.

With confirmation of the Hundred continuing for at least five more years success for the Cardiff side will continue to loom until next year’s draft. As the least successful franchise over the two years since the formation of the competition it seems no coincidence that the lack of success in 2021 wasn’t an unusual occurrence.