Welsh Fire vs London Spirit at Lord’s (St John’s Wood, north London) on 18 August 2024
A record crowd of 22,000 spectators for watching women’s cricket at Lord’s witnessed a ‘nail-biter’ that went down to the last three balls. Although the TV statisticians match-outcome predictor favoured Spirit to win, there was very little to choose between either team of first-time finalists. The ultimate commentator’s curse struck just after announcing that ‘it all depended’ on skipper Heather Knight. Next ball, Shabnim Ismail’s ‘immediate impact’ saw skipper Knight bowled by an unplayable ‘off-cutter,’ to put Fire ‘right back in it’ with level-pegging scores on 57/3; Heather Knight closing her account eight runs short of going top of the batter’s leader-board for cumulative scores (Nat Sciver-Brunt closed top: scoring 303 runs, albeit from two fewer rounds.) Described as ‘the most fluent batter,’ Danni Gibson ‘used pace off the face-of-her-bat’ for a quick fire cameo of 22 runs from just 9 balls until bowled by Shabnim Ismail’s ‘carbon-copy’ dismissal (to her skipper.) Finally with ‘calmness and control,’ Deepti Sharma (pictured) took the game by the ‘scruff-of-the-neck,’ when scoring the winning ‘six’ over ‘long-on;’ to the sheer delight of her Spirit team-mates who went on to lift the trophy. Other awards were: A) Player-of-the-match Georgia Redmayne who made top-score for the winning team and B) Player-of-the-series Annabel Sutherland (Superchargers) for topping of the bowler’s leader-board, taking a cumulative total of ten wickets. Both players received ‘Meerkat match hero’ cap-and-medals.
Introduced for SKY Sports by Melanie ‘Mel’ Jones ( broadcaster & former Australian international), with Eoin Morgan CBE (broadcaster & former England international), Nasser Hussain OBE (broadcaster & former England international), and Stuart Broad CBE (former England international) plus Regina Suddahazai (Young broadcaster of the year) pitch side. Commentators for BBC Sport were Isa Guha (broadcaster & former England international) Michael Vaughan OBE (broadcaster, sports journalist & former England international), Katherine Sciver-Brunt OBE (former England international) & Tash Farrant (England international) Phil Tufnell (former England international) with Alexandra ‘Alex’ Hartley (broadcaster & former England international & ‘No Balls’ Podcast on BBC Sound) on commentary and pitch side. Speaking post-match to Alex Hartley, Danni Gibson (please see her blog ‘Galavanting with Gibbo’ noted below): told TV viewers that the winning team was ‘a great group’ and was pleased that everyone ‘took turns’ to pull their weight. Also with Sophia Dunkley (Fire) when fielding, speaking to the commentary team on player’s radio-microphone. Separately on BBC Sound (5Live Sports Xtra.) Weather: fine sunny day 22-24C.
*Fire’s innings: *skipper Tammy Beaumont with international players Hayley Matthews (WIndies); Jess Jonassen (Australia), & Shabnim Ismail (formerly Rep. South Africa); *[Georgia Redmayne keeping wicket for Spirit]; *Sophia Dunkley was caught by Deepti Sharma from Tara Norris; *After 25 balls power-play 32/1; *Tammy Beaumont lobbed a ‘dolly’ to ‘mid-off,’ caught by Tara Norris from Sarah Glenn; *Next ball, Sarah Bryce went ‘leg-before’ middle-and-leg for a second-ball duck from Sarah Glenn; *Mid-way (50 balls) 53/3; *Hayley Matthews was caught from a fine-edge by keeper Georgia Redmayne from Eva Gray; *Georgia Elwiss was caught-and-bowled by Deepti Sharma; *Two balls later, fishing at a ‘wide’ ball, Phoebe Franklin was ’run out’ from ‘deep-mid-wicket’ by Danni Gibson’s throw to Deepti Sharma receiving at the non-striker’s end; *Finally two wickets fell from the last two balls. *Firstly, Jess Jonassen who made top-score with ‘fifty’ went ‘leg-before’ to Eva Gray; Secondly, Freya Davies lobbed a ‘sitter’ to Tara Norris who dropped ‘in the covers’ but Heather Knight’s redirected throw to keeper Georgia Redmayne receiving at the striker’s end, saw Ella McCaughan ‘run out from the last ball;’ *Fire’s batting: Jess Jonassen 54(41), Hayley Matthews 22 (26), Tammy Beaumont 21(16); *Spirit’s bowling: Sarah Glenn 2/17, Eva Gray 2/26, Tara Norris 1/18, Deepti Sharma 1/23;
*Spirit’s innings *skipper Heather Knight with international players Deepti Sharma (India), Meg Lanning & Georgia Redmayne (both Australia); *[Sarah Bryce keeping wicket for Fire]; *’Big wicket’ when Meg Lanning was bowled middle-and-leg stump, by Shabnim Ismail (73mph); *After 25 balls ‘power-play’ 23/1 (vs 32/1); *Four balls later, Cordelia Griffith was caught ‘outside-off’ by keeper Sarah Bryce, from Georgia Davis; *Level-pegging midway after 50 balls, 50/2 (vs 53/3); *’At a key moment,’ Heather Knight was bowled ‘middle-stump’ by Shabnim Ismail, putting Fire ‘right back into the match’ *Strategic-time-out was called on 83/3 after 67 balls; *Spirit needing 34 runs to win from 33 balls remaining, on par required-run-rate; *’Batting fluently,’ Danni Gibson played a match-winning cameo (scoring 22 from 9 balls) until bowled by Shabnim Ismail with a carbon-copy of her skipper’s dismissal; *Georgia Redmayne went ‘leg-before’ to Freya Davies coming round-the-wicket, upon review hitting leg-side bail; *With five balls remaining, Abbey Freeborn was left stranded half-way down the pitch and ‘run-out’ by Georgia Elwiss throw to Jess Jonassen at the non-striker’s end; *Finally, Deepti Sharma scored the winning ’six,’ clearing the boundary-ropes over ‘long-on’; *Spirit’s batting: Georgia Redmayne 34(32), Heather Knight 24(18), Danni Gibson 22(9), Deepti Sharma 16*not out (16), Cordelia Griffith 10(11); *Fire’s bowling: Shabnim Ismail 3/24, Georgia Davis 1/15, Freya Davies 1/21;
*Match result: London Spirit 118/6 (1.2 runs-per-ball from 98/100 balls, target 116 from 100/100balls) beat Welsh Fire 115/8 (1.1 r-p-b, from 100/100) by four wickets (and with 2 balls remaining) to win the Women’s Hundred trophy 2024.
*Winner’s match preparation videos by Danni Gibson on ‘Galavanting with Gibbo’ via YouTube @url https://www.youtube.com/@danigibson66/playlists
*Full Match with Trophy presentation courtesy of SKY Sports Cricket free-to-air via YouTube [03h57m45s] @url https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hA4ZrbwKisc
