The Women’s Hundred trophy will have a new home after London Spirit secured a surprise eight-wicket win against Oval Invincibles in Saturday’s Eliminator semi-final.
They progress to Sunday’s final against Welsh Fire at Lord’s. Fire reached the Eliminator in 2023 but in three previous editions of the tournament, neither they nor Spirit have previously featured in the final.
The Australian Georgia Redmayne, whose cover-drive for four brought up both her half-century and the winning runs for Spirit, said: “To play in a home final at Lord’s, it’s going to be incredible.”
As two-time winners and playing in front of a raucous, record home crowd of 15,823, Invincibles started the day as firm favourites. But having being put in to bat by Spirit, they put only 113 on the board. Set batters Alice Capsey and Marizanne Kapp fell to the 74th and 77th balls, while Spirit took five wickets in the final 14 deliveries .
In reply, Kapp had Meg Lanning caught behind off the 28th ball, but a 74-run partnership from 51 balls between Redmayne and Heather Knight took Spirit home with nine balls to spare.
Knight was initially a bit-part player, but finished up unbeaten on 36 from 23 balls, slamming Mady Villiers over the top for six in an innings that will have particularly pleased the England coach, Jon Lewis, six weeks out from the T20 World Cup.
With two catches apiece from Redmayne and Knight going begging, the Invincibles captain Lauren Winfield-Hill – who put down Redmayne standing up to the stumps on 19 – blamed sloppy fielding under pressure for the defeat. “In a close game, in a low-scoring contest, it’s costly.”
Redmayne would also have been lbw to Ryana MacDonald-Gay on 46 had Invincibles been able to refer the decision, but they had already burned their one review against Knight.
With the game as good as won, Invincibles’ 19-year-old left-arm spinner Sophia Smale was forced from the pitch with three balls remaining of her third set, after hitting her head diving to field the ball. “Her head’s fine, but her heart’s broken,” Winfield-Hill said.
Capsey – bowling for the second time in this year’s competition – was forced to take up the mantle and proved unable to stem the flow of runs from Knight and Redmayne.
Earlier, her 45-run partnership with Kapp had looked like it could take the game away from new-finalists-on-the-block London Spirit, but the pair fell in quick succession.
Kapp sent up a catch to Lanning in the deep, while Capsey eventually offered up her wicket on a plate to Dani Gibson, feeling for a wide ball a mile outside off-stump and toeing it to the keeper, though not before she had added 30 runs to finish as Invincibles’ top-scorer.
Gibson, playing with a heavily bandaged knee, had already sent down a 16-run opening set which included three wides, as well as fumbling two chances offered up by Capsey out to deep midwicket. She was also punished by Laura Harris, who released the frustrations of three weeks on the sidelines as overseas cover for Chamari Athapaththu with a seven-ball 16-run cameo, including a huge six against the England seamer over deep midwicket.
But Spirit turned things on their head in the final 10 balls, with Gibson finally snaffling two redemptive catches to launch her side into their first Women’s Hundred final.
