London Spirit won a nerve-shredding final against Welsh Fire at Lord’s in the Women’s Hundred, chasing down their target of 116 with just two balls to spare.
The match set an attendance record for a women’s game at Lord’s, with 22,000 spectators treated to a thriller in which Spirit limped across the line, breaking Welsh hearts in the process.
For the home crowd, the match also spawned an unlikely hero: two years ago Deepti Sharma was booed off the field playing for India after Mankading England’s Charlie Dean, but on this occasion – with Dean once again at the non-striker’s end – Sharma was roundly cheered as she lofted the winning runs for six over long-on.
The Spirit captain, Heather Knight, said she was delighted with the win, which brought back memories of her triumph at the same venue with England in the 2017 World Cup final. “It was a bit of a scrappy one, but we’ve committed to how we want to play, we’ve talked about being really positive and taking the game on,” she said.
The Fire coach, Gareth Breese, described the match as “a fantastic game of cricket”, saying: “There’s definitely pride, but there’s also a lot of hurt, because we play to win. We did the game proud today.”
It should have been an easy chase for Spirit but the South African “pocket rocket” Shabnim Ismail intervened on three occasions, reaching speeds of 77mph and angling in the ball to take out the stumps of Meg Lanning, Knight and Dani Gibson.
Georgia Redmayne, whose 34 runs secured her a second match hero award in two days after her clinching innings in the eliminator, was then trapped lbw by the ever reliable Freya Davies, with 12 still needed from the final 11 balls.
The run-out of Abbey Freeborn left the equation as six from the last set of five – but Deepti’s big swing finished the match in one hit. “She’s been unbelievable with bat and ball – her clarity and calmness, and her willingness to take the game on,” Knight said.
Knight was also full of praise for Gibson, the 23-year-old England all-rounder who dropped two catches and was smashed for 38 runs by Oval Invincibles on Saturday, but on Sunday at Lord’s pulled out an innings of 22 from nine balls of which the England head coach, Jon Lewis – he of the “inspire and entertain” mantra – would have been proud.
“She had a tough day yesterday where it didn’t go how she wanted,” Knight said. “The character to go: ‘I’m going to go and do what I do, I’m going to go and win this game,’ is unbelievable. She really took the pressure off the rest of the batters.”
Earlier, Welsh Fire had found themselves 32 for three after 29 balls and had to be bailed out of trouble by a half-century from the Australian overseas player Jess Jonassen. The all-rounder last played a T20 for Australia in October 2023 and was a shock omission from their squad to tour Bangladesh in March, but she has been a core component of Fire’s success this season, with 176 runs at an average of 44.
Spirit initially turned the screw with nine dots in 10 balls from Dean, followed by two wickets in three deliveries from Sarah Glenn. Fire’s captain, Tammy Beaumont, whose half-century on Wednesday launched her side into top spot in the table, prodded the softest of catches to mid-off, before Sarah Bryce was trapped lbw for a two-ball duck.
Hayley Matthews, who has been Fire’s leading run-scorer in the tournament, joined Jonassen for a 52-run partnership; but on this occasion her slow start ate up crucial balls and she eventually edged Eva Gray behind off the 75th ball of the innings. Gray also had Jonassen pinned lbw off the penultimate ball of the innings, but not before the left-hander had repeatedly driven through the covers to elevate Fire’s score over 100.
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In reply, Fire celebrated the early wicket of Lanning – who with an average of 17 across 10 innings in the competition has perhaps not quite lived up to her Megastar moniker – bowled by Ismail after swiping wildly across the line.
The pinch-hitter Cordelia Griffith was also dismissed early, edging behind when attempting a drive. But Gibson’s five boundaries kept things moving, while Knight – who has struggled to make an impact with the bat in previous seasons of the Hundred – chipped in with 24 from 18 balls to finish with a tally of 271: the second highest run-scorer in the competition.
“I haven’t dominated a Hundred competition before – I was desperate to do well this year. I was really pleased to contribute. I wanted to show the form I’m in ahead of the World Cup,” she said.
