Clash of generations, as Devine and Perrin prepare to headline Hundred final

Sophie Devine has kept very few secrets about where she's at.

A month before New Zealand launched their ultimately victorious campaign at last year's T20 World Cup, Devine - who turns 36 on Monday - announced she would step down as their captain at the end of the tournament.

In June, Devine revealed that the upcoming 50-over World Cup would comprise the last ODIs of her career.

Then she goes and produces a body of allround work across this year's Hundred that has twisted all that clarity about a player in the twilight of her career out of shape, to lead an undefeated Southern Brave directly into Sunday's Final at Lord's.

"I wish I would've done it at the start of my career," Devine says with typical dry, self-deprecating humour.

Speaking on a call set up by KP Snacks, who are celebrating the achievement of installing over 100 grass root community pitches in England and Wales, Devine continued: "I'm just really enjoying my time down at the Southern Brave.

"I'm just really enjoying my time and contributing. That's the biggest thing for me, especially, I guess, at this phase of my career, it's about passing on my knowledge and helping out whoever I can.

"The fact that we've managed to get a fair few wins on the board is nice, but we all know that it doesn't really mean too much unless you bring the trophy home at the end, so there's still a lot to go."

Fortunately for New Zealand - and for cricket - Devine plans to keep playing T20Is and franchise cricket for "probably how long people can handle me and put up with me".

There's that humour again from a player who has earned the right to call the shots on her career in her own time.

With 12 wickets at 14.08 and an economy rate of 6.54, she is the third-highest wicket-taker in the Hundred women's competition. Her 3 for 15 against Northern Superchargers was one of four Player-of-the-Match performances in the space of five games for Devine. Brave team-mate and England seamer Lauren Bell is the leading wicket-taker with 19 at 7.47 and an economy of 5.35.

Devine scored an unbeaten 41 off 42 balls at No. 4 against Trent Rockets in the other game during that stretch. While that remains the best of her eight innings so far with an average of 28.40 and strike rate of 109.23, having an even bigger impact with the bat in the final would ice an outstanding tournament for her.

So it was with beautiful symmetry that, in the Eliminator at the Kia Oval on Saturday, the 18-year-old Davina Perrin announced she was coming for Devine and her Brave team-mates with the second-fastest century across the history of the men's and women's competitions.

Perrin's 42-ball ton was just one ball short of Harry Brook's record, set in 2023, and propelled Northern Superchargers into the title decider via an emphatic 42-run win over last year's champions, London Spirit.

Her 101 runs led Superchargers to 214 for 5, the highest total in the women's competition to date - there has been just one total higher in the men's - and ultimately sealed a second final for her team.

Superchargers lost to Southern Brave in the final of the 2023 women's competition after Brave had been runners-up to Oval Invincibles in the first two editions.

Beyond a "bloody belter of a deck" at The Oval on Saturday, Perrin credited a lap round the outfield on match eve with Lisa Keightley, the former England Women's head coach now guiding Superchargers, and a net session with assistant Liam Simpson for the best innings of her young career. Chiefly it was their advice to "puff your chest out, take the helmet off, let it flow" that was on her mind as she struck five sixes and 15 fours in a remarkable show of power and poise.

"For me, I've got to back that up, for the team, we've got to back that up tomorrow," Perrin said. "We've got a big game coming up and that's where our minds are at now.

"Whatever's happened today, we take the token of confidence but we also park it, we move on. New game, new ground, new conditions, different team. We're going to take whatever's thrown at us… I guess I have made some sort of impact but a bigger impact will be the job that we do tomorrow."

Perrin's knock impressed all who saw it, including London Spirit wicketkeeper Georgia Redmayne, who had tried to get in the youngster's head by drawing her attention to her looming century, before scoring an unbeaten fifty in a losing cause herself.

"She didn't get too distracted," Redmayne said. "It was very impressive and I'm excited to see how she goes in the future. It's going to be tough for her to back it up tomorrow but I'd love to see some more striking like that in the future… hopefully not against us!"

But in terms of potentially catching the eye of England Women's head coach Charlotte Edwards, Perrin was happy to let her "bat do the talking".

"I just look to go out there and have fun," Perrin said. "I don't think about the rest of the stuff, that's just noise. It's all noise and the only noise I'm listening to when I'm batting is the sound of the ball flying off the bat - when it's a good day!"