2021 and 2022 leaders finished base in children's Hundred after losing six out of eight
Head coach Charlotte Edwards advises Southern Brave to defend their Children's Hundred title next year and must win it again.
Brave lost two nearby games to London Spirit and Manchester Originals either side of a link with North Superchargers to begin the year but, apart from their solitary get of the year in a rain-affected clash with Oval Invincibles, they fell apart seriously.
A record of six loses from eight game was telling, apparently none more so than a nine-wicket lost to Welsh Fire in their last match, at apartment on Wednesday.
Brave were bowled out for 103, thanks mainly to Hayley Matthews ' 4 for 14 and Jess Jonassen's 3 for 21. Fire next overhauled the goal with 26 balloons to give, Matthews sharing an uninterrupted stand of 72 with Tammy Beaumont, who struck 59 off 40 balloons.
Fire's direct road to Sunday's last at Lord's was confirmed a few hours afterwards, with Elliptical Bearing able to better their shield run-rate in beating Trent Rockets by five innings. That left Bearing to experience London Spirit in Saturday's destroyer, and Southern Brave to get over an unsatisfying strategy.
" The start was particularly hard because we played well and we did n't win," Edwards told ESPNcricinfo. " And then the back four games, which we probably did n't play well. When you do n't start the competition as well and then you do n't end it well, you're probably going to be sat in the position we're in.
" In different games we've bowled well or we've batted well, but we have n't put a complete game together and what I've learned this season in the Hundred is the teams are getting stronger, the depth in each team is getting more and more and if you're not quite on it, you're going to get hurt and lose games of cricket, which we've done on a regular basis at the moment. "
While the fact of Brave's failed name defence was still fresh, Edwards said a complete analysis of what went wrong and how the area could turn that around had n't occur until the end of this year.
By that time, she hopes more would be known about the 2025 edition of the tournament, with the ECB seeking private investment ahead of the new season's start.
" We'll go away and review what we've done so far, areas we need to improve, areas that we've done really well. I think that's important, because it's easy to gloss over those," she said. The bottom line is that we need to be better than we were this year, so I wo n't try to be too emotional and get involved right now. "
Edwards, who will coach Hampshire's Tier 1 team in the top level of the restructured women's domestic competition next year, has had her contract with Sydney Sixers extended for another two WBBL seasons.
She is certain that she will continue to coach the Southern Brave and Mumbai Indians, who lost to eventual champion Royal Challengers Bangalore in the WPL championship game this year.
" I think I'm out of contract today [ Wednesday ] with the Brave, so hopefully they'll re-sign me and it has n't gone too badly this year," she said. " And at Mumbai, I'll be hopefully looking to re-sign there.
" It's a great time to be involved as a player and as a coach. We'll have to wait and see if I can renegotiate that contract because I enjoyed my time in India. "
Additionally, Edwards supported calls for franchise leagues to be protected by exclusive windows on ESPNcricinfo's Powerplay podcast, as did the WPL and England's earlier this year tour of New Zealand. Later this year, as England's tour of South Africa and the final stages of the WBBL overlap, a new scheduling conflict appears.
" It has to be three windows for me and that's WPL, Hundred and WBBL," Edwards said. " They're the three biggest comps. That's no disrespect to all the other comps, but I think they're the three biggest comps in women's cricket. They're so important for the growth of the game.
There are nine months of the year for international cricket, according to" I'm absolutely certain that with three comps that only last a month each." That certainly would be my recommendation, because we want the best players playing international cricket and we want the best players playing franchise cricket. It's a no-brainer for me. "
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