Southern Brave captain Sophie Molineux, fresh off the back of leading Australia to ICC Women’s T20 World Cup glory, says that the Utilita Bowl-based side is ready to go for this year’s edition of The Hundred. 

The annual competition kicks off this week, with Southern Brave’s Men’s and Women’s sides playing their opening fixture against Welsh Fire on Wednesday 22 July at Utilita Bowl, the home of cricket in Hampshire. 

Molineux, who was recently announced as captain of Southern Brave Women, is one of the most decorated in the game, and recently led the Australian side to T20 World Cup victory, beating England in the final. 

On bringing her Australian wining culture to Southern Brave, Molineux said: “That would be great. It’s obviously a very different team and a very different tournament, but it’s really exciting.”

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Balanced squad

She continued: “Southern Brave has had a huge success in the tournament in their

history and to be able to hopefully lead this team to more would be amazing.”

And the captain believes that this year’s squad has been built well, with plenty of depth across all areas of the game, and is looking strong as the opening fixture draws closer.  

She added: “Looking at the squad, there’s a lot of depth and skill, there’s a lot of class with the bat and then some experience with the ball as well.

“It’s a nice balanced squad so yeah, I am really excited to see what the group can do.”

While several senior figures lead the squad, including Lauren Bell, Jemimah Rodrigues and more, the Southern Brave squad is loaded with exciting young talent including England and Surrey prospect Tilly Corteen-Coleman. 

When asked about Corteen-Coleman, Molineux said: “I think Tilly could teach me a couple of things as well.

“I’m really looking forward to working with her, she’s extremely talented and has done really well wherever she’s gone so far.

“We’ve got a quite a young squad, so there’s plenty of players there that I’m really looking forward to getting to know and hopefully learning off each other.”

Exciting time

The Hundred is entering a new phase after the ECB finalised the sale of stakes in all eight teams, bringing new ownership, players, kits and team names.

Molineux believes that the changes have brought a sense of positivity, energy and opportunity to The Hundred. 

She said: “It feels great, the energy and the atmosphere even just internally in the lead up to the tournament.

“It’s a really exciting time for cricket in England and to be a part of it is really special and you can just see that there’s a there’s a great feel about it.

“We’re in an English summer and the weather has been amazing, great for cricket, so while it might look and feel different at times, at the same time it’s a really positive thing to be part of.”