An extraordinary match in the Women's Hundred at Lord's has ended in a mix of misery and joy for half-a-dozen Australians, two of whom were watching from afar, probably peering through their fingers at the television.
Alana King and Elyse Villani remain on course to feature in Friday's eliminator with their Trent Rockets franchise after a London Spirit team featuring Beth Mooney and Megan Schutt pulled off a dramatic victory over Ellyse Perry and Sophie Molineux's Birmingham Phoenix.
That kept Rockets in third place ahead of Phoenix on net run rate (NRR) with both having completed their group stage matches.
Rockets needed Phoenix to lose, and at the halfway stage Villani and King will have been optimistic after the Birmingham side - who would have qualified themselves with a win - were bowled out for 82.
But Spirit slumped to 6-26 only for a seventh-wicket partnership from Naomi Dattani and Grace Scrivens to turn the tie around and seal victory with three balls to spare.
The winning runs came off Molineux, scant reward for a good bowling display of 1-11 off 17 balls. She was outshone, though, by Schutt who took 2-14 off 20.
The Aussies were less impressive with the bat, Molineux (3), Mooney (1) and Perry (0) making four runs between them and Schutt not coming to the crease.
Put into bat Phoenix lost wickets steadily, their best partnership being 25 between Evelyn Jones (24) and Georgia Elwiss (14) for the fifth wicket. No other batter reached double figures with Perry, caught behind by Mooney off Schutt, dismissed for a golden duck.
"We finally put it all together, Schutt said. "There's been games where we have bowled well and not fielded well, today we had the complete package."
However, the batting was not in the package.
Molineux had Danielle Gibson caught by Sophie Devine off the fifth ball for a duck and the Kiwi then ran out Mooney with a direct hit.
Amelia Kerr followed two balls later and Spirit were three down for two runs. That became 6-26 after 43 balls with Spirit in deep trouble.
But English duo Dattani (28no) and Scrivens (26no) batted smartly scoring 57 off 55 balls to gain Spirit's second victory of the campaign.
"We made it a little bit interesting but we got over the line and that's what counts," Dattani said.
In theory Northern Superchargers and Manchester Originals could catch Rockets if they win their remaining group matches, but they are well-behind on NRR and would need big wins respectively against Southern Brave on Wednesday, and Oval Invincibles on Thursday.
Brave and Invincibles are first and second on the ladder. First place goes straight into the final.
