James Vince guides Southern Brave to perfect start in Hundred defence

The fireworks very much happened before play started as the second season of the Hundred got under way with a deeply one-sided win for the inaugural champions, Southern Brave, who cantered over the line with 30 balls to spare to win by nine wickets. Welsh Fire mustered barely a spark throughout as they lost first the toss, then a succession of wickets and finally, inevitably, the match.

James Vince and Alex Davies turned Brave’s run chase, never the most daunting, into a gentle procession with an opening partnership of 72, and though Davies fell for 26 the electric Vince was unbeaten on 71 when he was denied the chance of scoring the winning runs by Jake Ball, with the scores level, bowling a no ball.

It was an imperfect end to what, for all the emphatic excellence of the home side’s performance, was in many respects an imperfect opening. For a start it was a little light on household names, thanks to Jonny Bairstow’s announcement on the eve of the tournament that he would prefer to rest than to play for Fire, and the T20 between South Africa and Ireland in Bristol taking out both Fire’s David Miller – who anyway turned out to be injured – and Brave’s Quinton de Kock.

There will be better matches, greater drama, infinitely more tension on other occasions but the youthful stream of fans heading into the Ageas Bowl on a gorgeous summer’s evening, with the sun straining to break through a rippled, hazy layer of cloud before finally succeeding, with a timing few players would match, just before the start of play, was in itself a convincing counter-argument to this tournament’s many sceptics.

Some of the novelties designed to attract the school-holiday crowd turned out not to be overwhelming successes. This game, for example,