Spirit comfortably win to eliminate Superchargers
London Spirit easily chase a target of 100 to eliminate opponents Northern Superchargers from the women’s Hundred competition at Headingley.
London Spirit easily chased a target of 100 to eliminate opponents Northern Superchargers from the women’s Hundred competition at Headingley.
Superchargers could have topped the table with a win in their final group game, but failed to set a defendable total and Spirit leapfrog them into the knockout positions after scoring the required runs within 86 deliveries.
Having won the toss and chosen to bat, Superchargers found themselves 14-3 after Marie Kelly, Hollie Armitage and Phoebe Litchfield all saw their stumps broken by Spirit bowlers.
Alice Davidson-Richards helped rebuild the innings, putting on partnerships of 30 with Annabel Sutherland and 39 with Georgia Wareham.
But Eva Gray dismissed Wareham and Bess Heath with her final two balls, and Davidson-Richards was bowled by Danielle Gibson from the final ball of the innings as the Superchargers finished on 99-7.
In the reply, Linsey Smith removed Meg Lanning and Cordelia Griffith with successive deliveries before catching Georgia Redmayne from her own bowling to leave Spirit 22-3.
That brought India international Deepti Sharma to the crease alongside captain Heather Knight and the pair steadily built their partnership.
Knight started slowly, but accelerated towards the close, smashing Wareham for six to finish the game with 14 balls to spare.
What else do you need to know?
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Spirit move from fifth to second, their net run-rate (NRR) putting them below table toppers Welsh Fire and above Oval Invincibles, with all three teams on nine points. Only a tie or no result between Invincibles and Trent Rockets, who sit in fourth on eight points, in their match on Wednesday would see Spirit slip out of the knockout spots, as the Rockets have a superior NRR.
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The Superchargers drop to fourth and, having played all their games, can no longer qualify for the knockout matches.
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Linsey Smith extended her lead as the top of the tournament’s wicket-taking charts. She has claimed 15 for the Superchargers, four more than second-placed Emily Arlott of Birmingham Phoenix
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Knight was on 15 from 24 deliveries, but struck five fours and a six from that point to lead her side to victory.
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Three players suffered the indignity of a golden duck – Kelly and Heath for Superchargers and Griffith for Spirit.
‘We’re in a really good spot’ – what they said
Spirit captain Heather Knight: “Really relieved, Deepti was amazing, she really took the pressure off. We’re in a really good spot now, we’ll just wait and see what happens.
“I knew we’d catch up pretty quick and they’d have to use their best bowlers first, which they did then we could target a few later on.
“It was a little bit of a tricky wicket. If you bowl straight, take pace off and keep the stumps in the game it’s actually quite difficult to score. It’s always nice to hit the winning runs with a six.”
Superchargers bowler Kate Cross: “We didn’t have enough runs on the board. We played against Manchester here and 140 was par, so a hundred was going to be a tough ask.
“On four occasions we’ve bowled teams out for under a hundred, we knew if we bowled well we might have had a chance, but when you’re only chasing a hundred they’re able to play their shots.
“We’ve had a tie and a no result, and that’s come back to bite us.”
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What is happening on Wednesday?
Four sides play their final matches of the group stage as Southern Brave face Welsh Fire (women’s at 11:30 BST, men’s at 15:00) and Trent Rockets play Oval Invincibles (women’s at 15:00, men’s at 18:30).
You will be able to watch the Rocket-Invincibles live on BBC Two and BBC iPlayer.
You can follow ball-by-ball commentary of the day’s action on BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra, BBC Sounds and the BBC Sport website and app.
