Heather Knight’s London Spirit reach final in crucial year for the Hundred
London Spirit women put in a disciplined performance with the ball to reach their maiden Hundred final
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Your support makes all the difference.London Spirit set up a Hundred Women final against Welsh Fire at Lord’s following Saturday’s eight-wicket victory over Oval Invincibles with nine balls remaining at the Kia Oval.
A disciplined bowling performance followed by an unbeaten Georgia Redmayne (53) half-century took Spirit to their first final since the competition’s inception.
The win ensured that across both men’s and women’s competitions, all eight teams would have featured in the Hundred final.
The visitors won the toss and elected to bowl. Captain Lauren Winfield-Hill hit Danielle Gibson for three boundaries in the second set to take the Invincibles to 21 for no loss after 10 balls before Charlie Dean trapped fellow opener Paige Scholfield lbw for five.
The introduction of Sarah Glenn saw the back of Winfield-Hill (17), the Invincibles skipper slapping a return catch back to the England leg-spinner to make the score 37 for two.
At the halfway point of their innings, Invincibles had moved on to 54 for no further wickets, the Spirit spinners bowling tightly, Dean, Glenn and Deepti Sharma with the combined figures of two for 25 from 30 balls.
Gibson, who had previously dropped Alice Capsey twice, eventually removed her for 30 before Marizanne Kapp fell to Glenn for a run-a-ball 26.
Dean then combined twice with Gibson in the deep to dismiss Mady Villiers (three) and Laura Harris (16) to finish with figures of three for 24, while Gibson’s full-length heroics to snare Villiers could prove to be one of the catches of the tournament.
Eva Gray returned for the final five, dismissing Ryana MacDonald-Gay first ball and having Sophia Smale (one) stumped as the Invincibles closed their innings on 113 for nine.
Chasing 114 to win, opening batter Redmayne made an unbeaten 53 from 47 balls and was well supported by captain Heather Knight, who made a classy 36 not out.
The Spirit had reached 33 for no loss after the powerplay, Meg Lanning going well on 21 from 14, both she and Redmayne surviving tough chances to Villiers and Harris.
Kapp returned to the attack to have Lanning caught behind for 22 and Amanda-Jade Wellington had Cordelia Griffith (one) stumped to leave the Spirit on 42 for two after 40 as Knight came to the crease.
From there on, the Spirit cruised to their target, Redmayne and Knight sharing an unbroken stand of 74.
Meerkat Match Hero Redmayne hailed a “special” moment on reaching the final.
She said: “It’s really special. We came into this game in really good spirits.
“Oval have probably got the best of us in the games we’ve played against them previously.
“We knew if we did the simple things right that we’ve got the team to be able to win the game and get to a Lord’s final at home which is going to be incredible.”
On her innings she added: “It’s nice knowing what kind of intent you’ve got to go in with.
“Sometimes when you’re facing some really good bowling upfront, you can get caught up in that a bit, but it helps having kept (wicket) for a hundred balls beforehand.”
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