Oval Invincibles vs London Spirit at the Kia Oval, London (South) on 17 August 2024;
‘Spirit’ beat ‘Invincibles’ in a low-scoring match in which Spirit won convincingly with bat-and-ball before a crowd of 15,800 spectators. Firstly, nearly half of balls bowled by Spirit were non-scoring ‘dot’ balls (46/100 vs 31/91.) Secondly the standard of fielding became a noticeable difference was between each team. Spirit’s fielders held-on to more difficult catches whereas commentators repeated that Invincibles had dropped three catches. Between innings, Michael Atherton interviewed Sarah Glenn pitch-side. Sarah Glenn told TV cameras that Spirit had ‘held their nerve’ and lauded Danni Gibson ‘Gibbo’ and Charlie Dean ‘Deano’ for their exceptional fielding skills. Two first-time finalists (Heather Knight’s ‘Spirit’ versus Tammy Beaumont’s ‘Fire’) will compete at Lords to win the Women’s Hundred trophy. Player-of-the-match was Georgia Redmayne (Australia) who struck a match-winning ’four’ to chalk-up her undefeated ‘fifty’ [51 runs (from 47 balls). Partnered by skipper Knight: the pair added 74-runs in their partnership (from 60 balls) to take Spirit into tomorrow’s final at Lord’s. Commentators for SkySports who presented highlights of the Women’s Hundred were Nick ‘Knighty’ Knight (broadcaster & former England international); Ebony Rainford Brent MBE (broadcaster & former England international – director Women’s cricket at Surrey & chair of Surrey’s ACE programme); Michael ‘Mike’ Atherton OBE (broadcaster, sports journalist & former England international); Simon Doull (NZ broadcaster & former NZ international); and Stuart Broad CBE (former England international.) Also on BBC Sound (5Live Sports Xtra.) Weather: fine sunny day 20-22C.
*Invincibles’ innings:*skipper Lauren Winfield-Hill, with international players Amanda-Jade Wellington & Laura Harris (Australia); Also Marizanne Kapp (Rep. South Africa); Without Chamari Athapathatu (Sri Lanka); [Georgia Redmayne keeping wicket for Spirit];*Batting top-of-order, Paige Scholfield went ‘leg-before’ playing across-the-line to Charlie Dean’s straight delivery; *After 25 balls ‘power-play’ 35/1; *Three balls later Lauren Winfield-Hill was caught-and-bowled reflexively by Sarah Glenn; *54/2 by mid-way (50 balls); *Top-scorer Alice Capsey fished at a ‘leg-cutter’ and snicked to edge to keeper Georgia Redmayne from Danni Gibson’s ‘erratic’ wide-ball; *Three balls later Marizanne Kapp ’top-edged’ a ‘slog-sweep’ that was caught ‘in-the-deep’ by Meg Lanning, from Danni Gibson; *Strategic-time-out was called on 84/4 after 80 balls; *Amanda-Jade Wellington was caught ‘at-deep-backward-square-leg’ by Meg Lanning, from Danni Gibson; *Mady Villiers went aerial, caught ‘exceptionally’ well by Danni Gibson skillfully diving with both hands followed by two sideway-rolls across the hard practice-pitch surface; *At third attempt, having been dropped twice before ‘in-the-deep’, Laura Harris was caught at ’deep-mid-wicket’ by Danni Gibson from Charlie Dean; *Next ball, Ryana MacDonald-Gay was caught at ‘long-on’ by Charlie Dean, for a golden duck from Eva Gray; *Sophia Smale was stumped by Georgia Redmayne from Eva Gray, from the final ball; *Invincibles’ batting: Alice Capsey 30(33), Marizanne Kapp 26(26), Lauren Winfield-Hil 17(10), Laura Harris 16(7); *Spirit’s bowling: Charlie Dean 3/24, Eva Gray 2/13, Sarah Glenn 2/15, Danni Gibson 2/38;
*Spirit’s innings *skipper Heather Knight with international players Meg Lanning and Georgia Redmayne (Australia) & Deepti Sharma (replacing Erin Burns); *[Lauren Winfield-Hill keeping wicket for Invincibles]; *After 25 balls ‘power-play’ 33/0 (vs 35/1); *’Big wicket’ when Meg Lanning was caught behind by ‘keeper Lauren Winfield-Hill, from Marizanne Kapp; *Taking a ‘huge swipe,’ Cordelia Griffith was stumped by Lauren Winfield-Hill, from Amanda-Jade Wellington;*Level-pegging at midway after 50 balls, 54/2 (vs 54/2);*Strategic-time-out was called on 76/2 after 65 balls, Spirit needing 38 runs to win from 35 balls remaining, with required-run-rate around par strike-rate (one run-per-ball); *As mentioned above, Georgia Redmayne and Heather Knight staged a 74-run partnership to take Spirit into the final; *Top-scoring Georgia Redmayne struck a match-winning ’four’ to chalk-up her own ‘fifty’ (from 47 balls) and ’finished in style;’ *Spirit’s batting: Georgia Redmayne 53*not out(47) Heather Knight 36*not out (23), Meg Lanning 22(16); *Invincibles’ bowling: Marizanne Kapp 1/19, Amanda-Jade Wellington 1/21;
Match result: London Spirit 116/2 (1.2 runs-per-ball from 91/100 balls, target 114 from 100/100balls)beat Oval Invincibles 113/9 (1.1 r-p-b, from 100/100) by eight wickets (and with 9 balls remaining)
*Full match courtesy of SKY Sports Cricket for ‘The Hundred’ (Women) free-to-air via YouTube [03h26m55s] @url https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcxCu4evQhk
*Results with link to match centre for edited highlights courtesy of The Hundred (Women) @url https://www.thehundred.com/results?year=2024
*Spirit’s match preparation videos by Danni Gibson on ‘Galavanting with Gibbo’ via YouTube @url https://www.youtube.com/@danigibson66/playlists
*Invincibles match preparation videos by Amanda-Jade Wellington on ‘Secret Life of Wello’ via YouTube @url https://www.youtube.com/c/Secretlifeofwello
