London Spirit became the third team to lift the Hundred trophy in front of a record home crowd at Lord’s against Welsh Fire. A close finish had not looked likely, but Spirit nudged themselves over the line in dramatic fashion, winning by four wickets with two balls to spare as Deepti Sharma won it with a six.
It was the perfect weekend for the side based north of the river after a smash-and-grab raid against Oval Invicibles at The Oval the day before, earning their place in the final against Welsh Fire. Lord’s finals can be a funny creature, and the firm book goes out the window with the pressure of performing on one of the grand old grounds.
Welsh Fire appeared to be making a decent start, until Sophia Dunkley (2) failed to middle a Tara Norris delivery and Deepti Sharma easily pouched the ball. The Fire have two batters in Tammy Beaumont and Hayley Matthews capable of taking a game by the scruff of the neck and, for a while, this was the case as Beaumont found the boundary four times to move steadily to 21.
The introduction of Sarah Glenn, the England international leg-spinner, turned the game in favour of the Spirit as she dismissed two of her regional teammates in the space of three balls. Beaumont was first to fall, caught by Norris diving forward at mid-off and then two balls later, Sarah Bryce, a player in decent form, was lbw to a ball that thudded into her pads for a two-ball duck.
Things were going well for Spirit, and they carried on where they had left off in the field at The Oval the day before. Their fielding was tidy and the bowlers gave little away. Glenn’s two for 17 was not just the pick of the Spirit bowling, but she also managed to avoid being hit for a boundary.
Welsh Fire relied on the bat of Jess Jonassen, the Aussie left-arm spinner, to anchor the innings with a score of 54 from 41 balls and with Matthews she added 52 for the fourth wicket. When Matthews was caught behind by Georgia Redmayne for 22 to give Eva Gray the first of her two wickets, the rest of the Fire batters failed to make an impact. They kept finding ways to get out, while Jonassen could only look on at the other end.
Jonassen lasted until the penultimate ball when Gray struck with the batter shuffling across her stumps to give the umpire an easy decision. Welsh Fire finished on 115 for eight and they knew they had a fight on their hands if they were to defend the total against a strong Spirit batting line-up.
Like the day before, it would have been Redmayne’s responsibility to get her side as near to victory as possible, while the big guns blasted way around her. Again it fell to a fiery South African bowler to stop the Spirit from getting their hands on the win, and when Shabnim Ismail bowled Meg Lanning for four, it looked like she was pumped up enough to cause the batters in her way problems.
Ismail tried her best and returned figures of three for 24, also bowling Heather Knight for 24 and Dani Gibson for 22. By that stage, Spirit needed 23 from the final 25 balls, with Redmayne unbeaten on a run a ball 27 and Sharma newly in the middle for company. It was Spirit’s game to lose, and they nearly did, before Sharma took control.
Redmayne was eventually dismissed for 34, lbw to Freya Davies, and suddenly Welsh Fire were back in it with 11 runs needed from the final ten balls. The game had suddenly become a little nervy for both sides. Abbey Freeborn was run out miles down the pitch, as Sharma was adamant that there wasn’t a run. With Welsh Fire fighting to the end, it took a calm and collected Sharma to launch the ball towards Ishmail on the boundary, and the fielder in the deep couldn’t hold on as the ball fell agonisingly for six.
