Tag: London Spirit

Spirit Win The Hundred (Women’s)

A look back at the final of The Hundred (women’s), plus mention of a great finish to the Eliminator in the Hundred (men’s), and a brief mention of the One Day Cup semi-finals and a photo gallery.

The final of the Hundred (women’s) has just ended, and it has been an absolute cracker. The men’s final starts at 6PM, and last night saw a great finish in their Eliminator match – it went to a super five, with Southern Brave managing to win. Birmingham Phoenix should have won in open play – Akeal Hosein bowled a no-ball to start the final five balls, and it went for six as well, which left Phoenix needing three off five balls. Phoenix failed to finish it from there, then scored only seven from their five balls in the Super Five, and finished the snatching of defeat from the jaws of victory by trusting Adam Milne to bowl their five balls, when they had Mousley who had recently won them a game by conceding just three from the last 10 balls available to do so.

THE WELSH FIRE INNINGS

Welsh Fire had won the league stage of the tournament and their reward for doing so was to progress straight to today’s final. London Spirit faced Oval Invincibles in the Eliminator yesterday (see here for details), and won that match. Spirit won the toss and chose to field first. Fire struggled with the bat, but Aussie all rounder Jess Jonassen gave them some hope with 54 off 41 balls, which helped them reached 115-8. A small total, but not an absolutely hopeless one. Sarah Glenn had 2-17 from her 20 balls, Deepti Sharma 1-23 and Eva Gray 2-23.

THE LONDON SPIRT CHASE

The 12th ball of the innings, bowled by Shabnim Ismail, the fastest bowler for any side in this tournament, secured the prize scalp of Meg Lanning for just 4. Cordelia Griffith got to 10 before Georgia Davis got one to take the edge of her bat and Sarah Bryce took a smart catch behind the stumps. Georgia Redmayne and Heather Knight looked in control of proceedings until Ismail intervened again, bowling Knight for 24 (18). That was 56-3 after 56 balls, 60 still needed off 44 balls. Dani Gregory now arrived at the crease, and she played the crucial innings – 22 off just nine deliveries, before Ismail clean bowled her to make it three wickets in the innings. Sharma, for my money the Player of the Tournament, now joined Redmayne with 28 needed off 29 balls. 16 of those runs had been accrued by the time Freya Davis trapped Redmayne LBW for 34 (32). A frenetic innings by Abi Freeborn ended when she ran herself out, setting off for a single in which Deepti Sharma had no interest and which was never on. Four were needed on three balls, with Sharma on strike and Matthews bowling. Sharma launched a straight drive, which as it happened went all the way for six, and London Spirit had secured the trophy. Sharma, 16* (16) had taken her aggregate for the tournament to 212, which was also her average for the tournament as she had been dismissed only once.

ELSEWHERE

The semi-finals of the One Day Cup are taking place today. Glamorgan look like they are getting the better of Warwickshire, while Somerset are likely to beat Leicestershire, although the latter are making a good fight of it in response to a Somerset total of 334-4. Lewis Goldsworthy, a native of Cornwall, scored 115* off 86 balls for Somerset. James Rew with 71 off 57 balls was the next biggest contributor, and openers Andrew Umeed and George Thomas deserve credit for giving their side a very solid start, on which the more explosive likes of Goldsworthy and Rew cashed in.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My periodic reminder that clicking on a photograph will enable you to see it and others at a larger size. My usual sign off…

This one shows not just a caterpillar, but what those caterpillars do the leaves of this plant.

Invincibles Boss London Derby

A look back at the early game in The Hundred today and a two part photo gallery – some of my regular stuff and a lot of owl pictures, taken at a Norfolk Owls session yesterday.

The early game in the Hundred today was between Oval Invincibles and London Spirit, at The Oval. This post looks back at that match.

THE SPIRIT INNINGS

The Invincibles won the toss and elected to field first. Spirit started atrociously, and when Charlie Dean gifted her wicket to left arm spinner Sophia Smale the score was 47-7 and it looked like we were going to be in for a very short game. However Eva Gray lived up to her team’s moniker, playing a very spirited innings of 28 off 22 balls, providing excellent support to Indian all rounder Deepti Sharma. Gray was eighth out with the score at 103. Sarah Glenn scored 2*, but her main role was to support Deepti Sharma which she did excellently, and the end of their innings Spirit had 120-8 to defend, with Sharma having scored 46* (30).

THE INVINCIBLES CHASE

Invincibles started slowly, with Chamari Atthapaththu continuing to struggle for form, scoring 11 off 19 balls, and number three Alice Capsey also scored at less than a run a ball, managing 13 off 14. However Invincibles’ skipper Winfield-Hill was going well, and she now found an excellent partner in Marizanne Kapp. This pair were still together when Invincibles completed victory with nine balls to spare. Winfield-Hill had 61* (40), a performance that would win her the Player of the Match award, while Kapp with 30* (18) had also batted superbly. Invincibles are second in the table, behind Welsh Fire on net run rate. A by-product of this result was that Manchester Originals, currently in action against Northern Superchargers, were officially eliminated even before their match started.

PHOTOGRAPHS

Today my gallery comes in two parts, first of all some of my regular pictures…

The second part of today’s gallery comes from yesterday early afternoon when there was a Norfolk Owls session for autistic people at the Scout Hut on Beulah Street. There were a number of different species of owl, ranging from very small (similar in weight to the mice that are its foodstuff) to gigantic (an eagle owl with a wing span of 6’4″). We were given plenty of information about owls, including the excellence of their sight and hearing. At the end of the session we got to handle two of the owls, one very small one and the eagle owl.

Trent Rockets Post Big Total

A look at development’s in the Hundred so far today and a photo gallery.

Today in The Hundred Trent Rockets are hosting London Spirit. The Women’s match has just reached the halfway point, and this post looks back at the first 100 balls.

BUILDING A BIG TOTAL

London Spirit won the toss and decided to bowl first. Bryony Smith and Grace Scrivens opening for the Rockets had an excellent opening stand, and Scrivens, who also got good support from Nat Sciver-Brunt, completed an excellent half century. She was third out, bowled by Sarah Glenn for 55, which made it 121-3 with 21 balls to go in the innings. Heather Graham played a superb late innings, and although Ashleigh Gardner didn’t have a great time, Alana King played well in the very closing stages. The innings ended with the run out of Gardner for 7 (4) which left Rockets with a score of 158-5. Deepti Sharma, the Indian off spinning all rounder, had the best figures for the Spirit, taking 2-25 from her 20 balls. This total will take a lot of chasing down. If Rockets defend successful it will mean that there is a clear gap between the top three (Welsh Fire, Northern Superchargers and Oval Invincibles) and the rest. If Spirit do somehow pull this off the split will instead be between a top four and a bottom four.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…