‘Welsh Fire Women’ v ‘London Spirit,’ at Cardiff (Sophia Gardens) on 18 August
Receiving ‘Hero-of-the-match,’ cap-and-medal Danielle Gibson told Rob Key that ‘Spirit’ put in a good bowling performance but ‘couldn’t quite do it’ with the bat. Also, it was ‘nice to get out (of the group stage) on a win’
Gibson more than matched skipper Heather Knight’s batting and bowling performance. Batting, both players finished 34* ‘not out’ (both from 19 balls); and shared a match-winning ‘fifty’ partnership. Both Knight and Gibson took two wickets each with the ball – Gibson conceding fewest runs. Gibson also took a catch (see below)
The Hundred’s’ 32nd match was broadcast live (commentators included Rob Key, Ebony Rainford Brent, Mark Butcher and Darren Gough, with guest Niall O’Brien from SKY Sports TV; also cricket social media (Alan Gardner and Sampath Bandarupalli for EPSN-cric-info) For ‘Fire,’ Natasha Wraith was playing for Sarah Taylor. Earlier, commentators reported that ‘Spirit’ were looking for a big win to leap-frog the table into 3rd place. That proved to be a tall order
*‘Fire’ lost Bryony Smith to the last ball of Freya Davies first over, reaching 35/1 by the power-play
*Danielle Gibson’s missed a difficult diving catch from Hayley Matthews, who was out ‘leg before’ to Deepti Sharma’s next ball
* ‘Fire’ lost 4 wickets for 5 runs, including skipper Sophie Luff who was caught behind for a golden duck by Tammy Beaumont off Danielle Gibson
*At the half-way point ‘Fire’ reached 50/5, remaining close to one-run-per-ball from start to finish. Chances of making a defendable score disappeared when Australian Georgia Redmayne was bowled by Heather Knight
*Bowling 10 consecutive balls, Charlie Dean took two tail-ender’s wickets for just 7 runs. Danielle Gibson caught Katie George, off Charlie Dean (wicket 8.) Danielle Gibson also took ‘Fire’s’ 9th wicket as bowler when Alex Griffiths was caught ‘in-the-deep’ by Alice Monaghan
*Keeper Tammy Beaumont was checked for concussion from Freya Davies’ final over when a ball indirectly struck Beaumont’s helmet grill, during the closing stages of ‘Fire’s’ innings
*Between innings, commentators confirmed their optimism that ‘Spirit’ needed to score 96 runs to win in 41 balls at more than two-runs-per-ball, to qualify 3rd with superior net-run-rate. Otherwise their tournament was over (even if they won with a slower run rate)
*Openers Tammy Beaumont and South Africa’s Chloe Tryon went cheaply during ‘Spirit’s’ power-play, Beaumont’s stumps skittled by Piepa Cleary and Chloe Tryon lobbing Hayley Matthews straight to Nicole Harvey at ‘mid-wicket.’ Deandre Dottin was caught by Piepa Clearly, also from Hayley Matthews spin bowling
*At the power-play, ‘Spirit’ were 36/3 (compared to ‘Fire’s’ 35/1)
*With their biggest hitters gone, commentators thought ‘Spirit’ were comfortably in front, but failing to score above two-runs-per-ball: they’d missed their 41-ball winning target by 33 runs *9 balls later at half-way, ‘Spirit’ were 77/3 (compared to 51/5)
*Skipper Heather Knight and Danielle Gibson (both 34 runs from 19 balls) steered ‘Spirit’ home to victory with a ‘nice finish’ without any further loss
*‘Spirit’s’ impressive win lifted them to finish in 4th place *Disappointing campaign for the home team, who finished the group stage as wooden spoonists
Result: ‘London Spirit -W’ 96/3 (58/100 balls) beat ‘Welsh Fire -W’ 95/9 by 7 wickets with 42 balls remaining
‘London Spirit -W’ (LS-W) 96/3 (58/100 balls 1.65 runs-per-ball) Danielle Gibson 34 runs* (from 19 balls), Heather Knight 34*(19), Deandre Dottin 12(6); ‘Fire’ bowling: Hayley Matthews 2/28, Piepa Cleary 1/24; Fow 1-12, 2-23, 3-36; ‘Welsh Fire -W’ (WF-W) 95/9 (20 ov, 0.95rpb) Georgia Redmayne 35(28), Bryony Smith 13(8), Georgia Hennessy 11(19); ‘Spirit’ bowling: Danielle Gibson 2/10, Deepti Sharma 2/14, Heather Knight 2/17, Charlie Dean 2/22, Freya Davies 1-21; Fow 1-15, 2-45, 3-45, 4-50, 5-50, 6-71, 7-78, 8-83, 9-91
Scorecard at: https://www.espncricinfo.com/series/the-hundred-women-s-competition-2021-1252659/welsh-fire-women-vs-london-spirit-women-32nd-match-1252731/full-scorecard
Next match: Women’s Eliminator (‘Oval Invincibles’ vs ‘Birmingham Phoenix’) at the Kia Oval on 20th August
