Welsh Fire 106 for 1 (Beaumont 59*, Matthews 35*) beat Southern Brave 103 (Tryon 55, Matthews 4-14, Jonassen 3-21) by nine wickets

Fire are now in a strong position, due to their superior net run rate, to finish in top spot and qualify automatically for the Hundred Final at Lord’s on Sunday. Oval Invincibles require a convincing win over Trent Rockets on Wednesday afternoon to leapfrog them.

“I think we’ve been really good,” Matthews said. “When you look at our line-up, we’ve got a lot of experience, and we’ve played on that really well.

“The bowlers have done a really good job at making sure we don’t have to chase too big of a total. I think it’s been a complete team performance and that’s where we’ve performed really well, everyone’s been chipping in and playing their role.”

After Beaumont put the Brave in at the toss, Matthews dismissed the in-form Danni Wyatt, caught at deep midwicket, before Smriti Mandhana departed four balls later to the pace of Shabnim Ismail, to leave the Brave 15 for 2 at the end of the powerplay.

And Brave were quickly four down when Jess Jonassen had Georgia Adams stumped, before Maia Bouchier fell to give Matthews her second after Phoebe Franklin held onto a superb diving catch in the deep.

Wickets continued to fall. Freya Kemp got a feather to a Jonassen arm-ball, Naomi Dattani was bowled by a beauty from Matthews, and when Kalea Moore was stumped two balls later, the Brave were tottering on 47 for 7.

Despite this mini-fightback, the result rarely looked in doubt after the Fire’s flying start, with 34 runs posted before the loss of Sophia Dunkley to the final ball of the powerplay.

Beaumont was especially strong on anything loose, working the field with sweeps and cuts, while Matthews picked the gaps behind square as the former reached her half-century in just 31 balls. The pair put on 72 in 54 deliveries to ensure Fire roared into the latter stages of the competition.