Brunt v Verma - some wickets just mean more

JACK BUTLER: One of the summer's standout rivalries resumed at Trent Bridge in the women's Hundred. There was a familiarity about the end result, but that only told half the story

Back in 2016, I was bowled first-ball in a village match. When you’re effectively bounced out by a 50-year-old, it stays with you, ingrained in your mind - alongside the other times you are left wondering why you put up with this game. 

Some things you just don’t forget. So, in the return fixture, unlike most, I knew what was coming - and I charged the first ball, smashing him for four back down the ground. Was it necessary no, but did it feel good? Of course. 

Now, I have no hard feelings for this guy. I have never spoken to him. I don’t know his name or anything about him. But, at that moment, I wanted to hit the ball as far as I could - and a four will have to do.

I got bowled the very next ball, but that’s not the point. 

What is, with niche 'village cricket' examples aside, is that we all understand exactly what is going on between Shafali Verma and Katherine Brunt. Sometimes, you just want to come out on top; the game can wait, because, at that moment, the individual battle can’t. 

So let’s recap how we got to this stage. Earlier this summer, the battle started in the England and India Vitality international T20s.

Match one - Brunt got Verma for a two-ball duck. Match two saw Verma hit Brunt for five fours in just five balls. And, in the third T20, Brunt had Verma out bowled, after the opener dragged on. 

What followed was a silent send-off, the sort of nonsense from Brunt that is perfectly at home on a cricket pitch - even if, when we take the sport away, we are effectively watching a 36-year-old 'shush' someone half their age. 

Earlier in the Hundred, at Edgbaston, part two took place.

Verma hitting two fours - one down the ground, one through square leg, before the veteran outwitted the youngster, with a masterful slower ball that was edged onto middle stump.

Trent Bridge provided the setting for the third instalment of one of the summer's great subplots. Verma and Brunt meeting again as Trent Rockets faced Birmingham Phoenix.

A Trent Bridge crowd of just under 7,000, dotted with the unmistakable yellow of the Rockets strip and a few patches of the Phoenix's orange colours, were all engulfed in what was largely a game within a game. Brunt vs Verma. Once more. 

New-ball in hand, Brunt ran in. Hard. The first ball whizzed down the leg-side before Verma knocked a single off the very next delivery. For now, the battle would have to wait. 

With 15 balls gone, the England seamer was back into the attack. The first ball saw Verma on the offensive, hitting through mid-wicket for four. It was as dismissive as it gets. 

Third ball, and once again, Verma was trying to smash Brunt into the stands. This time, however, she could only pick out Heather Graham in the deep and Brunt had her fifth wicket of the competition - incredibly, two of those are Verma.

^{Brunt and Verma have done battle throughout the summer}

Naturally, some wickets mean more, in both importance and emotion. When Verma was out, Brunt was screaming and punching the air, before her teammates engulfed her with a huge celebration. 

That sort of moment sets the tone and clearly, the Rockets were up for it - if the first half of their performance in the field was anything to go by. 

In their chase of 125, the Phoenix collapsed, losing three wickets in five balls, with Sammy-Jo Johnson picking up two - including a caught and bowled. Even a six, that cleared the boundary by 15 odd yards, from Issy Wong, couldn't stop the frequency with which the Phoenix wickets fell on way to 71 for six off 58 balls. 

But then something changed.

Whether or not the Rockets were caught up in the emotion of the game - or even that individual battle - can be debated, but they certainly took their foot off the gas. A brilliant cameo from Erin Burns, who hit 38 off 26, was key as the visitors somehow rescued a three-wicket victory. 

Brunt may have won the individual battle, but in the end, it was Verma and the Phoenix, who, from absolutely nowhere, would win the war.

The ECB’s Hundred Rising is providing eight aspiring, young journalists the opportunity to tell the story of The Hundred men’s and women’s competitions through their own eyes.